One Wild Week
by Bratette
Summary: The Chipmunks and Chipettes decide to start off summer with a camping trip. They're in for a week of fun, drama, and plenty of romance! AxB, SxJ, and TxE.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **_I'm SUPER excited to be getting this story published! I've been wanting to start a lengthy multi-chapter story for a really long time, and that's what this one is going to be. I was going to wait on starting it, but I just couldn't._

_The POVs for this story are going to switch around between chapters, mostly because I want to try and focus on all six of the characters equally in this one. I'll also try to update as often as I can for this, but I really want this story to end up being good so updates might occasionally take a while._

_Anyway, here's the first chapter. Hope you guys like it, and please review!_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own anything._ _All characters belong to Ross Bagdasarian and Janice Karman._

* * *

It was an average, peaceful morning. The sky was a beautiful bright shade of blue, the weather wasn't too hot or too cold, and birds were even chirping. The morning held a certain calm feel to it— aside from a certain pink-clad Chipette currently throwing a huge fit, of course.

"No! No way. There is _no way_ I'm doing this, I already told you guys that."

Brittany Miller stuck her nose in the air and crossed her arms firmly. She wasn't going through with this without giving her sisters a hard time, and that was that.

"Oh, come on," Eleanor sighed. "What's the big deal? It's not like you're going to be doing anything else."

Brittany shot her an angry look. What Eleanor had said was pretty much true, sure, but that didn't mean she had to _say_ it.

It already sucked enough that it was the only the beginning of her summer and it had already been pretty much ruined. After the nasty break up she'd had with her long time boyfriend Alvin, the idea of an entire summer ahead of her suddenly didn't seem so exciting anymore. She knew she needed to find a way to bounce back up on her feet and get herself back on track, but that was easier said than done.

She wasn't usually one to long over break ups and mope about it for a very long time. But this one was different.

She'd been dating Alvin ever since she was thirteen. That meant three whole years of her putting up with him. He'd been her first serious boyfriend, the first actually real relationship she'd ever had with someone.

They had their fair share of arguments and times where both of them would insist that they were done before they made up a day after, but this time it was different. Completely different. There wouldn't be any making up or getting back together. Brittany was officially finished with Alvin Seville. She wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

She'd been the one to end things, but she knew it was a mutual thing.

Their relationship had always been a rocky one, even whenever it hadn't had a romantic aspect to it and they were just friends. It was hard and a challenge and definitely not the usual kind of relationship that most lovers had. And to be honest, Brittany actually really _liked_ that it was so difficult. Her relationship with Alvin wasn't like anything else she'd ever experienced before, and that was what made it so interesting and fun.

But over the last few months, their relationship had taken a strange turn. Their arguments had become more serious and heated. Their insults were no longer teasing and playful but downright mean and hurtful. Being around one another suddenly felt more like a chore than anything. It was like that spark in their relationship that had once made it so fun had died out.

She'd known she was done with him the night of Muffy's big party.

Muffy was one of the most popular girls in school, she always had been. Although the Sisters club that she'd had with Courtney (the one that Brittany remembered desperately trying to become a member of all too well) had died out by the time middle school came around, she'd never lost her popularity. Parties hosted by her were always a big deal, and Brittany was always happy to get an invite.

Brittany had been standing in front of her vanity mirror, looking over the nice dress new she'd bought. She thought it hugged her curves just right and made her blue eyes look even brighter than they already did. She remembered being excited to show it off to everyone at the party, namely her boyfriend.

They'd gotten in a small fight the night before when he'd ditched hanging out with her the third time that week just to play video games by himself. They'd been growing distant from one another, and she knew that going to a party together would help get them back to normal.

When she'd dialed Alvin's number to see when he'd be picking her up, she didn't get an answer. She'd tried several more times before giving up, wondering what the hell was going on. Those thoughts had been answered moments later when her phone had went off.

She'd answered it only to have Alvin tell her that he wouldn't be able to make it to the party.

Just those words had made her want to throw her phone at the wall. She hadn't been sad about being ditched for the fourth time that week. She hadn't been upset. She hadn't been heartbroken or anything like that.

She was just downright _pissed_.

Alvin had never had issues with going to parties before. In fact, he loved them. He rarely ever missed them. And Muffy's start of the summer party shouldn't have been any different. She was tired of being put last. She was tired of being ditched. Most of all, she was tired of Alvin.

She hadn't regretted it one bit when she'd told him not to be sorry about it because she was through with him anyway. They'd argued over the phone for a little while after that, but in the end they'd both agreed on one thing. They wanted nothing to do with each other anymore.

When the morning after their break up had come, Brittany didn't feel any of the things she normally did after a fight with Alvin. She didn't feel like calling him up and telling him that she was ready to hear an apology and forgive him. She didn't feel like waiting to see if he would be the one to call her first instead. For the first time, breaking up with Alvin was actually what she seriously wanted.

That being said, it was still hard. She'd been dating him for so long that actually not being with him anymore was just _weird_. It was like a huge part of her daily routine had been ripped away from her, and adjusting to that was a really difficult thing to do.

So yeah, she knew that she'd have to find a way to get a fresh start and move on from him soon enough. Which was why a camping trip with her sisters and the chipmunks, including _him_, didn't settle well with her.

When Jeanette and Eleanor had happily told her about the camping trip Dave and the boys would be going on and had invited them to, she'd felt anything but happy. They'd both insisted that everyone thought it was a good idea because it would be a great chance to get away from everything for a little while and just have fun, but she disagreed.

And now here she was, both of her sisters trying to convince her to finally agree to go.

"I can't believe how selfish you guys are being!" Brittany growled, slamming her fist down onto her pink satin sheets. "You _know_ why I don't want to go!"

Eleanor's gaze softened. She knew just what she'd meant by that. "It's not like you'd have to hang out with Alvin."

Brittany scoffed. She knew Eleanor couldn't be so stupid as to believe that it wouldn't be hard to avoid and ignore someone like Alvin.

"It'll be fun, Britt." Jeanette coaxed from beside her. "We'll _all_ be there, not just him."

"We're trying to be the _opposite_ of selfish. We're going to have a great time, and we don't want you to miss out on that all because of a boy." Eleanor added.

"And it w-would probably do you some good to start getting out again, but you don't have to come if you don't want to..." Jeanette allowed her voice to trail off.

"We'd just really like it if you did." Eleanor finished for her.

Her sisters just didn't get it. Even if she put the Alvin situation aside, it still wouldn't be fun for her. Maybe if they would have been doing something else it would have been an easier thing to consider, but camping? Seriously? Camping was _not_ her thing.

Camping for an entire week with her sisters and the Seville boys didn't only mean having to be around Alvin for seven days. Whenever Brittany thought of camping, she thought of people getting dirty and gross and doing boring things like hiking and fishing. That was most definitely not her idea of fun, and it certainly wasn't what she wanted to do for a fresh start.

"Just think about it," Eleanor relented.

When all Brittany did was roll her eyes in response, her sisters finally got up from her bed and left the room, leaving her alone to her thoughts.

She sighed loudly, slumping down in her bed and pulling her "DIVA AT REST" sleeping mask back over her eyes. She didn't need to think about anything, all she needed was some more sleep.

* * *

Three days later, Brittany found herself standing outside next to an ugly, tacky minivan. She glared at it in disgust.

"I can already tell this is going to be _super_ fun." she announced, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Eleanor walked past her, loading her things into the van. "It's not that bad! Besides, we'll be outdoors most of the time anyway." She pulled one of her teal suitcases into the van, ignoring Brittany's grimace upon hearing the word "outdoors".

"Plus it has a great mini fridge in there!" Theodore announced excitedly as he helped Eleanor get her bags into the car.

"It looks a lot better on the inside than it does on the outside," Dave, the boys' father, assured her. He hopped inside and sat down at the driver's seat.

She wasn't so sure, but it was too late to turn back now.

"Well, _I_ think it looks awesome, Dave." said an annoyingly familiar voice from behind her.

She turned to see Alvin walking over to the van, beginning to load his own things inside. Brittany glared at him, highly doubting that he actually thought that. He was already trying to start things with her and they hadn't even left yet. She was tempted to throw an insult or two his way, but she didn't. She would be the bigger person this time around.

"You do?" Dave asked, peering out the open door from the driver's seat. He was clearly surprised by his son's unusually optimistic attitude.

"Totally," Alvin nodded, disappearing into the van.

Brittany's fists clenched at her sides. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then shoved any thoughts of what had just happened away. So what if she could already tell Alvin had decided he was going to be a brat? She didn't care. If she was going to go on some stupid camping trip, she was going to make sure she found some kind of way to enjoy herself. And he wasn't going to ruin that. She wouldn't let him.

Beside her, Jeanette struggled with what little bags she'd brought along with Brittany's own suitcases. Brittany usually got Alvin to carry her things, but that obviously wouldn't be happening anymore.

"Y-you know we're only going to be gone for a week, Brittany." Jeanette reminded her, stumbling towards the entrance to the van.

"I know," Brittany frowned. "I hope I didn't pack too little."

Jeanette hesitated before lifting one leg in an attempt to get inside the van. She wobbled uneasily and nearly toppled over, but Simon showing up beside her prevented that.

"Easy there," he said with a chuckle, taking some of the bags from her and helping her get them inside.

Jeanette blushed and let out a quick "th-thanks" before hurrying into the vehicle behind him.

Brittany rolled her eyes and finally walked inside the van herself. It _did_ look a little nicer on the inside, she realized.

She sat down in one of the empty seats, pulling out a magazine from one of her bags to busy herself during the ride. In front of her, the loud sound of crunching met her ears.

"Theodore," she hissed, glaring at the back of his head. "Could you please chew a little bit more _quietly_?"

He turned around to smile apologetically at her. "Sorry, Brittany," Theodore said. Beside him, Eleanor giggled.

Brittany attempted to return to her reading, but it was still too hard to focus. Not too far away, Simon and Jeanette were sitting next to one another, happily chattering away about boring science crap or whatever that no one else cared about. She resisted the urge to throw her magazine at them.

And then, to make matters worse, a figure plopped down in the seat behind her. She felt her blood begin to boil as Alvin kicked off his shoes and propped his feet up on the back of her seat.

Brittany threw her magazine down and turned around so that she could glare at him. She then spoke the first words that she'd said to him since their break up.

"Get your _feet_ off of my _seat_," she growled.

"This is Dave's van, not yours." Alvin told her, not looking bothered by her angry expression. "And as his son, what's Dave's, is mine. Meaning that's not your seat. Meaning I can put my feet wherever I want to put them."

"Move them," Brittany insisted.

Alvin smirked at her. "No."

"Move them!"

He simply leaned back, looking as if he were enjoying himself. "I don't think I will. Deal with it, princess."

"Everyone ready to go?" Dave asked before Brittany could reply to Alvin's obnoxious comment.

After he heard a simultaneous chorus of "ready", he began to pull out of the driveway.

Brittany slowly turned around and picked her magazine back up. She didn't care about the annoying way Alvin was acting. She'd just ignore it and let him see that he wouldn't be able to get to her, not anymore. She was above all of that silly nonsense now.

When Brittany had wondered what things would be like between the two of them once they saw each other again, she'd pictured a lot of different scenarios. Maybe they'd just share a lot of dirty looks and that would be that. Or maybe they would both ignore each other completely and pretend the other one wasn't even there. But that clearly wasn't what was happening.

Brittany would have preferred dirty looks or completely ignoring each other over Alvin managing to already piss her off like he usually did.

She'd just have to stop letting herself fall for that kind of stuff. He always got on her nerves because she let him. If she didn't want that to happen anymore, all she had to do was just... ignore it. And that couldn't be _too_ hard, right?

She smiled to herself and went back to finally reading her magazine. Just as she'd started to get into it, though, the sound of loud chomping met her ears again. She opened her mouth to tell Theodore to knock it off, but then Simon and Jeanette had both started to laugh loudly together over something. On top of all that, Alvin's feet were _still_ on the back of her seat.

Brittany gripped her magazine tightly.

It was going to be a long week.

* * *

_Oooh, drama. So what'd you guys think of the first chapter? Don't forget to REVIEW! Reviews are what keep me going and help me write faster. :)_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** _Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!_

_This chapter was a bit of a challenge, since it's Simon's perspective, and I've never written in his POV before. I hope I didn't screw him up too badly._

* * *

As a flurry of cars and trees passed by outside the window that he was looking out of, Simon Seville tapped his foot nervously. It was a bad habit that he had picked up. Whenever he was nervous or anxious about something, it was extremely hard for him to stay still.

It wasn't that he was nervous because he'd be gone for a week on a silly camping trip and that meant that he had to put his latest science experiment on hold. He wasn't nervous because being away for a week meant that he wouldn't be able to get a head start on the extra school assignments that he had asked for. And yes, he did enjoy doing extra assignments even whenever school was out, thank you very much. He thought of it as exercise for his brain.

In fact, going camping didn't really bother him at all. He'd surprisingly been looking forward to the idea ever since Dave had brought it up. He was eager to get away from things for a little while and spend time with his friends... namely the friend sitting next to him, the friend that was the exact reason he was feeling so annoyingly nervous.

He stole a glance at Jeanette, who had taken out a book to read during the drive. He watched as her eyes carefully scanned over the words, sometimes going back to read over things in case she had missed any details. Every now and then she'd reach up to push a lose strand of hair out of her face that had fallen out of her already messy bun. He'd always been good at noticing all of the little things that Jeanette did that most people looked past.

He'd had a crush on his best friend ever since he had been eight years old. Whenever he was little, it had been an easier thing to ignore because he didn't completely understand the feelings that he had for Jeanette. He'd just known that he loved spending time with her and he loved every single thing about her personality, even her flaws that most people looked down on her for, like her messy hair or baggy clothes or even her clumsiness.

As he'd grown older, his feelings for her had grown with him, and he understood that he was hopelessly in love with Jeanette Miller. The only problem was that he had no idea how to express that or if he should even tell her that. Every time he tried to tell her how he really felt, a little voice inside of his head would tell him to shut up.

Simon couldn't be sure whether telling her how he felt would end in a good or bad way, and that was what scared him. Of course, there was always the chance that he spent his time worrying over nothing and she did return his feelings, but the risk of her _not_ returning them was too much for him.

He'd rather she never know his true feelings than risk losing his friendship with her if she didn't feel the same for him.

He knew that was silly, especially since he knew Jeanette better than anyone and she would never stop being friends with him over something like that.

He also knew that he was a rather big hypocrite since he'd spent so many times telling Theodore whenever he had a crush on someone that if he didn't take a chance at telling the girl he liked how he felt for her that he'd never know what could have been, and the worst thing that she could do was say no.

It was one of those things that was typically much easier said than done.

Still, though, it was a very frustrating matter. Simon had tried a number of times to attempt at forcing himself to tell Jeanette how he felt, but each time always resulted in failure. He detested failure.

There had been a time when they'd been studying together and he'd decided he would just blurt it out. But when he'd tried to tell her, it felt like he had swallowed his tongue, and he'd just quickly changed the subject. That was how it almost always went. Sometimes it felt like it was just downright impossible for him to admit to Jeanette how he truly felt.

That being said, Simon didn't usually feel so nervous around her. Even though he had been holding in his secret affections for her for an extremely long time, he'd always felt very comfortable around Jeanette.

The only reason he felt so nervous now was because he'd decided that before their camping trip was over, he was going to tell Jeanette how he felt. Somehow, someway, it was going to happen. He was sure of it.

"S-Simon?" a timid voice piped up, bursting him out of his thoughts.

He looked over at Jeanette, his cheeks warming. "Yes?"

"I was just wondering if you had something that I could use to... to keep my spot in my book?" Jeanette asked shyly.

"By that you mean a bookmark?"

"W-well, yes, a bookmark... I thought I'd brought some of mine with me, but I don't have any."

Simon leaned down to dig through his bag and find something that she could use. He slipped one of his own bookmarks out of a book that he'd brought along with him and handed it over to her.

"Oh, you didn't have to do that." Jeanette muttered, beginning to chew on her lower lip.

"It's alright," Simon shrugged, shooting a smile in her direction, which only caused her to blush and sink lower in her seat. "I've read that book a thousand times, I don't mind losing my place."

She finally returned his smile, slipping the bookmark into her thick paperback novel.

As Simon stared at her, he knew that this was the perfect moment to tell her. He'd confess his feelings and if she didn't feel the same, so be it. He couldn't go on just hiding how he felt for her out of fear any longer.

"Um... Jeanette?"

"Yes, Simon?"

He braced himself. Now was his chance, he was going to do it.

"Well, Jeanette, it's just that... I have something that I'd like to talk to you about."

His counterpart shifted in her seat nervously. She pushed her pink framed glasses up the bridge of her nose and began to chew on her lip again. "W-what is it?"

"Well, I just wanted to tell you tha—"

Before Simon could finish, someone had started to call his name.

"Hey, Simon!"

Simon did his best to ignore it, especially since he didn't feel like dealing with the owner of the particular voice at such a moment like this one. He needed to just get it over with and tell Jeanette.

"Simon!"

He grit his teeth, refusing to look away from Jeanette. "Listen, Jeanette, I just—"

"SIMON!"

"I think Alvin wants you." Jeanette quietly pointed out with a grimace.

Simon let out a very loud and annoyed sigh, turning around in his seat so that he could glare at his older brother. He always did a great job at getting on his nerves and bothering him. He shouldn't have even been surprised that Alvin had managed to ruin his chance at telling Jeanette how he felt.

"What, Alvin?" he snapped.

"Could you pass me that?" Alvin pointed at the portable cassette player that was sitting near him.

The bespectacled chipmunk could have sworn he felt his left eye twitch. "That's what you wanted?"

"Yeah. I didn't think I'd need it yet, but clearly I do since _someone_ can't shut up for five minutes." Alvin shot an annoyed look in Brittany's direction.

"I wasn't even talking to you!" the snooty Chipette yelled, sitting up straighter in her seat so that she could return his glare.

"That doesn't mean I can't _hear_ you," he shot back.

"Well, deal with it!"

"You deal with it!"

"Deal with _what_? I'm not the one complaining, you are!"

Theodore leaned forward with an outstretched hand in Simon and Jeanette's direction. "Please, just give it to me so they can stop!" he pleaded, his green eyes wide.

Simon sighed and handed the cassette player to Jeanette, who handed it to Theodore, who handed it to Brittany, who threw it at Alvin's head.

"HEY!"

Brittany merely smirked and turned away from him, continuing the conversation she'd been having with Theodore and Eleanor.

Once he was sure that everyone had managed to calm down, Simon looked back over at Jeanette. "Listen, about what I wanted to tell you..." he said, allowing his voice to trail off as he tried to think of how to word what he wanted to say.

Jeanette slowly nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"I know this might sou—"

He'd tried to just get it out right then and there, but he was interrupted yet again, this time by Dave.

The van came to a stop as Dave announced, "We're here!"

Nearly everyone shot out of their seats, eager to get out of the crowded van.

"Come on Jeanette, you can help me get all of my things together." Brittany said, staring at her sister expectantly.

Jeanette shot Simon an apologetic smile. "M-maybe you can tell me about whatever it is that you need to talk about later?" she offered politely.

He nodded, slumping down in his seat as he watched her stand to walk off with Brittany.

This was going to be much harder than he'd thought.

* * *

_Poor Simon. :(_

_I'd love to know what you guys are thinking of this story so far... so please review! Reviews make me super duper happy._


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** _Sorry for the kind of late update! This chapter was challenging too, since it's Eleanor's POV and I've never written for her before either... but it was the funnest chapter to write so far._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

With a loud sigh, Eleanor stood up and began to stretch her muscles. It felt like they'd been driving forever, and sitting in one seat for so long was more than just a little uncomfortable. She was glad that they'd finally reached their destination.

Everyone was eagerly making their way out of the van, desperate for some fresh air. She definitely couldn't blame them.

Eleanor's brown eyes landed on Theodore, who was actually sleeping in his seat. He'd managed to fall asleep a few minutes ago before they'd arrived and even though she'd been in the middle of trying to tell him something when he did, she didn't want to wake him. He looked so peaceful, his eyes closed and light snores escaping him as he occasionally twitched in his sleep.

_He's so cute,_ she thought, a small smile gracing her features. But she quickly shook her head and forced those thoughts away. She couldn't think things like that.

Theodore was her absolute best friend, but the two had always had an interesting relationship that never really quite seemed like something that was just a friendship. Whatever their relationship was, it always felt casual and simple.

She never worried about things like feelings or anything like that, because with Theodore it seemed like everything came easy. If their friendship was meant to turn into something else someday, it would. If it wasn't, it wouldn't. Of course, thinking like that wasn't exactly so easy anymore. It had gotten harder ever since Theodore had actually gotten a girlfriend.

Theodore had never been much of a lady's man. It wasn't like he was a pro at talking to girls or getting girls to swoon over him. That was more of his oldest brother's element. So when he'd actually toughened up and asked a girl out, it had shocked all of them. Eleanor, however, had been the one that was shocked the most.

While nothing had ever really happened between them, Eleanor had figured that it would be her that would someday walk down the school hallway with him, holding his hand. She thought she'd be the one that got to kiss him or hug him whenever she wanted or just do all of that mushy relationship junk whenever she pleased. Clearly that wasn't what was happening.

In a way, it felt like she had been waiting for him for years, waiting for the right time that something more between them could happen, and he'd just stomped all over that and left her in the dust. That wasn't a very fair comparison, but it was what it felt like either way.

She even got a little pissed sometimes as she thought back to all those boys that she had turned down for things like dates and dances. No, it wasn't like she had boys falling at her feet every day, but there were a couple cute and funny guys that had asked her out on several occasions and she had always said no.

When it came to things like school dances, she didn't go with any of the boys that asked her because she and Theodore always went together to those. As friends, yes, but they still always went together. But that hadn't happened at the last school dance for the year.

She'd been getting ready, excited despite her frantic and anxious oldest sister. While Eleanor was trying to decide how she wanted to wear her hair for the dance, Brittany was running around, every now and then shouting out complaints about how she barely had any time to get ready. Eleanor would roll her eyes and repeatedly remind her she'd been getting ready since that morning, and it was already turning dark outside.

"Hurry up, Jeanette!" Brittany was whining, stomping her foot.

A nervous, frowning Jeanette had quickly run over to her and set the shoes that she'd gotten for her sister down at her feet.

"Thank you," Brittany had breathed, before she began to scream and yell all over again. "Jeanette! You put the right shoe where the left shoe should have been!"

"S-sorry, Brittany..."

Brittany had sighed, leaning down to fix her shoes and put them on the right feet. "It's fine, whatever!"

At the time, Eleanor couldn't understand why her oldest sister always got so excited and stressed about dances. Sure, they were fun, but they were just school dances! No big deal.

Of course, she was singing a different tune whenever she picked up the phone and heard Theodore's voice on the other line.

"Hi, Eleanor!"

"Hey Theodore," she had said, all the while struggling to put a green headband in her blonde hair and balance the phone on her shoulder at the same time. "I'm pretty excited for tonight! We're going to have a _blast_. Don't you think?"

She had listened to him stutter and ramble on, before he finally spit it out that he wanted to know if she'd be okay with someone else coming with them to the dance as well. Eleanor had asked what he meant, and Theodore had told her he promised Juliet that she could come with them to the dance as well. He had said it could be like a small, friendly group thing.

She'd felt frustrated just at the sound of Juliet's name, a blonde haired girl that went to their school.

Theodore had had a small crush on Juliet whenever they were little, but it was never anything big back then. Sure, they ended up getting very friendly with one another after Juliet had gotten over her own small crush that she'd developed for Alvin, but they were just kids. They soon forgot about one another and moved on to other small, puppy love crushes.

At the time, Eleanor had even tried to _help_ him with Juliet! She'd worked with her sisters to try and make Theodore look good in front of the little girl and everything. Sure, she'd felt a strange pang of jealousy whenever she'd realized just how interested Theodore seemed to be with Juliet, but she knew it wasn't really that big of a deal and it would blow over soon.

Which was why she'd felt sick at the mention of Juliet's name so many years later.

She'd told Theodore that it was okay, that he could just go to the dance with Juliet. He'd sounded worried, insisting that he could tell Juliet that he'd already promised to just go with Eleanor, but she'd pushed aside her feelings and told him it was fine.

She had still went to the dance without a date, much to Brittany's horror ("that's so _embarrassing_, Eleanor!") and she still had a great time, dancing with her friends and not having a care in the world about silly things like boys and relationships. But when it had been time for a slow dance, she'd sat by the punch table, her eyes flickering to Theodore and Juliet every now and then as they danced.

Not long after, Theodore and Juliet had officially become an item. Even now Eleanor could hardly believe it.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes at herself. Why was she bothering to think so much about such stupid things? Theodore was dating someone, she and Theodore were meant to be just friends, and she needed to get over that and deal with it. Maybe this camping trip would be good for her, it'd help her come back down to reality.

"Theodore," she muttered, shaking her best friend's sleeping form. She giggled as he let out a loud snore and turned in his seat. "Theodore, wake up! We're here!"

That seemed to do the trick.

Theodore gasped and sat up quickly. "Oh, we are?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah," Eleanor nodded, taking his hand to help him up out of his seat. He still seemed a bit dazed from his tiny nap.

They both walked out of the van together to join the others, everyone peering around at the place that they would be camping out at for an entire week.

"Well, what do you guys think?" Dave was asking, a bright smile on his naturally friendly face. "Nice, isn't it?"

"It _is_ rather nice," Simon said, looking around the area. They had a lot of room, seeing as they were the only people there. "Very open."

"I-I think so too." Jeanette muttered.

Theodore smiled happily. "I like it!" he confirmed, while Eleanor nodded from beside him.

"Hmph," was all that Brittany had to say about it, turning on her heel and walking back into the van with her nose in the air.

"Well, I like it too, Dave!" Alvin said loudly, his gaze settled on the van. "And anyone who doesn't is just being a _brat_!"

The only response that he got from that was the sound of the van's door slamming shut.

"I'm glad you all like it, then." Dave said, before he chuckled and rubbed a nervous hand on the back of his neck. "Well, most of you... anyway, I think you kids are going to have a lot of fun here!"

"I know _I_ will," Alvin remarked proudly.

Dave blinked. His son normally wasn't so cheerful and positive about things.

Beside them, Eleanor caught Jeanette whispering to Simon, "So what... what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh, uh, I'll tell you later, Jeanette. It's not important right now, I suppose." Simon replied, shrugging.

Eleanor briefly stared at them before looking back over at Theodore. "Hey, I've got an idea," she whispered to him.

"What?" Theodore asked.

"Let's start off this camping trip with some roasted marshmallows!"

* * *

A little bit later, all six of the Chipmunks and Chipettes were sitting outside together, gathered around by a fire. They'd even managed to drag Brittany out with them. Dave had decided to stay in the van since it had gotten pretty late already and the long drive had tired him out.

Every now and then a conversation would strike up between the six of them, but they mostly sat in a casual silence, staring into the fire as they watched their marshmallows roast.

A loud sigh caused everyone to look over at Alvin, who appeared to be annoyed. "This is so boring!"

"Don't start," Simon told him crossly, lightly blowing on his warm marshmallow before sticking it in his mouth.

"Sorry, _dad_."

"Well, you're the one that said you knew you'd have _fun_." Brittany smirked, admiring her perfectly manicured nails.

Eleanor looked up from her spot beside Theodore, deciding to speak up before another argument started. "We could play a game," she suggested.

"What kind of game?" Jeanette asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.

"I have no idea," Eleanor shrugged, "but something simple that we could do near the fire."

"Ugh," Brittany rolled her eyes, her arms crossed as she glared at the fire. She was the only one that had refused to roast any marshmallows, claiming that they were simply far too fattening for her to eat. "Sitting out here is torture enough, why make it even _worse_?"

Eleanor narrowed her eyes at her sister. "It'll be fun, Brittany."

"Ooh, I know!" Theodore suddenly piped up, before shoving an entire marshmallow into his mouth. He chewed carefully, swallowed, and then spoke up again. "We could see who can roast the most perfect, tastiest marshmallow! Winner gets to eat it!"

Eleanor smiled. "That's not really what I had in mind, Theodore."

"I've got it!" Alvin snapped his fingers, sitting up straighter from his spot on the ground. "We could tell scary stories."

"S-scary stories? Like, ghosts and stuff?" Theodore sputtered, scooting closer to Eleanor.

"Yeah," Alvin nodded, grinning. "We can take turns."

Simon sighed, looking at Jeanette as he spoke. "This should be fun," he remarked with absolutely no enthusiasm, causing his counterpart to giggle.

"I'll go first!" the red capped chipmunk announced, completely ignoring Simon.

The others all stared at him expectantly, no one looking too excited as Alvin began to tell his story.

"One night, a pretty dark and normal night a lot like this one, there were six people all sitting around a fire..." Alvin started, speaking each word slowly for added dramatic effect.

Theodore gasped. "Six people? All sitting around a fire?"

Alvin nodded and continued his story, telling them about how the six people had all decided to go on a camping trip together. He talked about how just weeks prior, there had been a news report about a deranged serial killer on the loose in the place that they had decided to camp at, but the people in the story had still decided to go camping anyway.

"As they were sitting around the fire," Alvin said darkly, looking at them all as they seemed to become interested in the story, "they heard a rustling in the bushes."

"No!" Theodore cried out, his eyes wide.

"Yes! They heard a rustling in the bushes, and all of a sudden... the deranged serial killer jumped out from behind the bushes!"

A few of them eyed the bushes that were near them warily as Alvin said that.

"They all screamed as the serial killer tried to decide who he wanted to murder first." Alvin continued, a smirk slowly growing on his face. "He spotted a prissy looking girl with ugly blue eyes and a pink outfit on and decided that she could be his first victim beca—"

Brittany suddenly stood up, her hands on her hips. "I'm done with this!" she growled, before stomping off into the van.

Alvin started to laugh, clearly pleased with her reaction, while Simon stood up and took Jeanette's hand to help her up after him.

"Very mature, Alvin," Simon said, rolling his eyes before he and Jeanette disappeared into the van as well.

"Sheesh, tough crowd," Alvin snorted.

Eleanor rolled her eyes, watching as he too went off to go inside the van.

"Ready to go in, Theodore?" she asked, turning to look at Theodore, who was clinging to her side. Although Alvin's story had been pretty lame, he seemed a little shaken up by it.

"Y-yeah," he nodded, slowly standing up.

Eleanor smiled, beginning to walk over to the van with him. "I know this trip's barely started, but it's pretty fun so far." she commented casually. "Even with the annoying way that Alvin and Brittany are acting."

"It has been fun," the green clad chipmunk beside her nodded enthusiastically, seeming to quickly forget about his previous fears. "I just wish Juliet's dad would have let her come with us... she seemed kind of sad when I told her I'd be gone for an entire week."

Eleanor blinked, stopping in her tracks. She'd done such a good job at putting thoughts of Theodore's relationship out of her head ever since they'd arrived, that she'd almost forgotten that Juliet even existed.

"I'm sure she'll live," she muttered with an unusual trace of bitterness in her tone, before she walked ahead and disappeared into the van, leaving behind a surprised and confused Theodore.

So much for the trip being pretty fun so far.

* * *

_Ouch. More drama! Poor Eleanor, that's got to suck._

_By the way, Juliet isn't an OC. She's an actual character that's in the episode "Theodore and Juliet", an adorable episode that you should watch if you haven't already._

_Anyway, what'd you guys think of that chapter? Let me know in a review, they really do help me write faster and I love hearing what you guys think. :)_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** _I'm so happy with the feedback this story has been getting! I'm really glad you guys like it so far._

_For all of you people who have been asking for more Alvin/Brittany: I think you'll like this chapter. :)_

* * *

The sun had barely begun to rise whenever everyone slowly but surely started to wake up. None of them had slept very well, and that was causing a few of them to be a bit on the grumpy side.

"Dave!"

"Good morning, Alvin."

Alvin stomped over to his father, who had actually slept in the driver's seat for the entire night so that everyone else could have enough room in the van. He glared at Dave, his lower lip jutting out. "You said this van was going to be _roomy_! But it's _not_! Are we really supposed to sleep like this for an entire week?"

From the back of the van, Brittany carefully fluffed her bedhead hair and shot Alvin a smirk. "Looks like somebody's lost that _positive_ attitude, hm?"

"Shut up!" Alvin snapped. He wasn't in the mood to deal with her just yet. He was tired and cranky and the idea of having to sleep in such an uncomfortable position for so many days was only making him even more frustrated.

He'd been doing just fine at bothering Brittany ever since they'd first stepped foot into the van, and that was exactly what he'd wanted, not for it to be the other way around. Of course, he'd _always_ liked picking on Brittany, and he wasn't going to stop just because things were different between them.

Sure, they'd dated for a while. A long time, actually. And even though how he felt about the break up exactly was confusing even to himself, he wasn't going to dwell on it. Why should he? He didn't get why most people liked to torture themselves after they broke up with someone. Constantly moping about it, whining to their friends about it, complaining about how they'd never go on with their lives.

That wasn't how he was going to deal with a break up, no way. He was Alvin Seville, and he'd _never_ let some silly girl bring him down.

But you see, the thing was, Brittany _wasn't_ just some silly girl.

He'd always had a strange relationship with Brittany, even before they'd actually started dating.

Whenever they'd been little, they'd always been yelling or fighting with one another. They insisted that they just couldn't _stand_ each other, and that they even hated each other. But there was never any actual genuineness behind their harsh words or many insults, and both of them had an unspoken, mutual understanding of how things worked between the two of them.

They fought, they called each other names, but when it came down to it, they really cared for one another. The two of them just had a funny way of showing it. That was why no one had been surprised when they'd first started dating.

And yeah, their relationship _had_ been nice. Why try to deny it? But it also had a lot of downsides to it.

For starters, while it had helped them grow closer to one another, closer than they'd already been, it also caused them to fight much, much more often.

At first, it wasn't like that. When they'd first started dating, it had been a breath of fresh air for everyone— mostly because they'd gone through a phase during the time before they started dating where they constantly argued nonstop and were always furious with one another. They hadn't understood why they were suddenly always so mad at each other, but they'd eventually realized that was all because of unresolved, unsettled feelings.

They'd started dating on the same day that they'd gotten into yet another huge argument. Brittany had been mad about him choosing some other girl to be his partner for a class project, and he'd been mad about her getting mad.

"I just can't believe you'd do that!" Brittany had been yelling, her icy blue eyes glaring at him. "What's so great about _her_?"

"Why does it _matter_?!" he had yelled right back.

"Because... it just does!"

They'd gone on for a while after that, yelling back and forth at one another, until Alvin had suddenly kissed her, right on the lips.

He didn't know why he had done that, maybe just to get her to shut up because her screeching was giving him a headache, but she'd just pulled away to start screaming at him some more, this time screeching about how he was an inconsiderate jerk. But when he did it again she'd only briefly hesitated before kissing him back.

After that, they'd started dating, their feelings for one another finally out in the open. And for a while things were great between them. Their little arguments that they occasionally had didn't stop by any means, but it wasn't like serious arguments. Just small things that one of them would occasionally get upset over or even just playful fighting that didn't really mean anything.

Dating someone for three years was a _long_ time, especially for someone like Alvin, who was used to things like small flings and short lived crushes on pretty girls.

Maybe that was their problem— they'd been together way too long and it was starting to take its toll on them. Either way, in the last few months before they'd broken up, things had definitely started to change between them.

The constant fighting was back, but this time it was more brutal than ever. Small things they got upset over turned into huge things that neither of them ever seemed to be able to let go, the playful fighting turned into serious arguing that was anything _but_ playful.

That unspoken and mutual agreement that they'd shared about none of their mean words or insults being genuine had been broken. They didn't have fun together anymore. They didn't like being around each other anymore. They weren't _happy_ anymore.

It was like everything that they did was suddenly so incredibly serious, and if there was one thing that Alvin didn't like, it was seriousness. So he'd done what his instincts had told him to do and he'd started avoiding her as much as he possibly could, which was why when they'd broken up he'd actually felt relieved.

Relieved whenever it had first happened, at least. After the fact that they weren't dating anymore (for _real_ this time, this wasn't just some small argument that they could get over) had settled in, he wasn't really sure how he felt.

But seriously, he really _wasn't_ going to worry about it. He refused to let himself do that. Picking on Brittany like he normally did as a way to let her know that she hadn't gotten to him and that he was just _fine_ without her was what he planned on doing, and it was working perfectly.

Bottling up your feelings and ignoring them was _much_ better than letting them get to you and ruin you. In his mind, at least.

The sound of Eleanor agreeing with him burst Alvin out of his thoughts. "Alvin's right. It really is kind of hard to sleep in a minivan with so many people, Dave."

"And you can't be very comfortable having to sleep in that driver's seat!" Theodore agreed from beside her. The two of them had been acting a little weird ever since they'd joined everyone else in the van last night, but they seemed to be back to their normal selves by now.

Dave sat up straight and looked at all of them. "Well, if you don't want to sleep in the van, you could always use the tents that I brought along with us just in case."

"Last night would have been a brilliant time to inform us about those tents." Simon muttered dryly.

* * *

Later on, Dave had gotten out the tents that he'd brought with him.

"There's only two," he explained, "but that's alright. You three can sleep in one and the girls can sleep in the other."

"What about you, Dave?" Theodore asked.

"I can sleep in the van. I'll have a lot of room with just myself in there."

"I can't believe this," Brittany was saying from her spot at the back of the van, sitting between her two sisters while she fumed. "You two said this was going to be _fun_, and it just keeps getting worse! Now I have to sleep _outside_?"

"W-well..." Jeanette grimaced, fidgeting nervously. "Maybe sleeping outside will be fun, too."

"It's not that bad, Brittany. It's better than having to sleep in a cramped van, isn't it?" Eleanor insisted.

Brittany frowned and fell silent.

"I'm afraid I'm not that good with setting up these kind of things," Dave looked over the tents, scratching the back of his head.

Alvin's hand immediately shot up. "I'll do it, Dave!"

"You _want_ to?" Dave asked, turning to stare at his oldest son in surprise.

"Sure," Alvin shrugged. It couldn't be _that_ hard. "Unlike _some_ people, I'm grateful for you bringing these tents and I'm happy to help set them up!"

Brittany narrowed her eyes while Dave continued to stare at him in bewilderment.

"Gee, Alvin, if you really want to..."

"Let me help you!" Brittany suddenly said, standing up so that she could march over to them. "Because we all know there's no one here that's more _grateful_ than me!"

"No, no, that's fine," Alvin chuckled, shaking his head. "I can do it."

"Well, I can do it too!" the pink-clad Chipette said. "Besides, my sisters and I are going to be sleeping in one of those tents. I want to make sure it's actually put up right."

"I can do it by _myself_."

Everyone else watched the two of them in silence, unsure of what to do or say.

"But like I said, I want to help." Brittany shot him the most fake, sweet smile she could possibly muster.

"Well I don't _need_ your help!" he snapped, starting to grow frustrated.

Brittany admired her nails while she spoke, a smug look on her face. "I see what the problem is," she said. "You're just scared that a girl would be able to put a tent together better than you could."

"_What_?" Alvin cried out, narrowing his blue eyes at her. He suddenly relaxed, forcing himself to regain his composure. "That's a cute joke, Brittany, but we all know that I could put a tent together _much_ better than you ever could."

"Oh, yeah?" Brittany's hands fell to her hips as she began to glare at him.

"M-maybe you two should... should let one of _us_ try to put the tents together." Jeanette offered nervously.

Alvin and Brittany both turned to glare at Jeanette and let out a simultaneous yell, "No!"

Jeanette shrunk back at the sound of their loud, angry voices and hid behind Simon, who was rolling his eyes.

"Well, I guess you both could do it..." Dave said, eyeing the two of them. He handed them each a tent before they both stomped out of the van, slamming the door shut.

Alvin opened up the bag with the tent in it and eyed the instructions for a brief second or two. Who needed instructions? He could do this on his own. The red-capped chipmunk tossed the paper aside carelessly and got to work on the tent.

Every now and then, his gaze would wander over to where Brittany was setting up her own tent for she and her sisters. She was fumbling around with the tent that she was attempting to put up, and eventually she seemed to get fed up with it. "Ugh!" she growled, pouting.

"What's the matter, Britt?" he asked, a smirk lighting up on his face. He'd been waiting for this. "I thought you could put a tent together much better than I ever could!"

Brittany looked over at him and rolled her eyes. "It's not like you're doing any better." she pointed out, which was true.

He looked down at his sad attempt at a tent. He hadn't gotten much done, mostly because he couldn't figure out where he was supposed to start with the stupid thing. Alvin narrowed his eyes at the tent before he got back to work on trying to set it up, more determined this time.

The next time he looked over at Brittany, a look of horror crossed his face. She might have been having trouble with her tent at first, but now it looked like she was starting to get the hang of it.

How had she managed to start off better than he had? Before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth to demand just that.

"How are you doing that?"

She smiled smugly. "Didn't you read the instructions?"

Moments later Alvin found himself reluctantly reading over the instructions that he'd previously tossed to the side. They did seem to be helping more, because he was starting to make a lot more progress with the tent than he had been earlier. Soon enough he had finished the tent and he stood back to admire it proudly.

"Finished!" he said, grinning.

"You call that a tent?" Brittany scoffed. "Mine looks _way_ better."

Alvin looked over at the tent that she had put together before rolling his eyes. "They look the same!"

"Do not!"

"You're right," he nodded. "There's only one difference. That difference being that _mine_ is the one that looks way better."

Brittany didn't look so convinced. "In your dreams, Seville," she smirked.

"Looks like I'm not dreaming," he announced after he pretended to pinch himself.

She rolled her eyes and began to march off to the van while he followed behind her. That hadn't been so bad— they hadn't really fought that much while they'd tried to set up the tents. Things almost kind of felt a little _normal_ for a second there, not so harsh and serious.

Just as Alvin went to open the door to the van, a strong gust of wind blew by. The pair turned to see that the tents they had worked so hard on had collapsed onto the ground in a pathetic heap.

They both gasped, their eyes widening.

"Maybe we _should_ get the others to put them together..." Alvin said, frowning at the tents.

"Great," Brittany spat. "I did that for _nothing_."

Alvin smirked at her. "Well, it wasn't for nothing! If anything, you got to prove that I'm way better at building tents than you."

In an instant Brittany's heated glare was now turned on him. She had a scowl on her pretty face.

"That's not true!" she snapped.

"Sure it is," he said.

"No it's not!" she said firmly, before she added, "God, do you always have to be such a jerk?"

Alvin began to return her glare at the sound of that. "Do you always have to be so whiny?" he fired back. It suddenly felt like they were back to seriously arguing just like they did so often before they'd broken up. That was only making him feel even more annoyed with the situation.

"I am _not_ whiny!" she insisted.

"What are you doing right now?" he asked rhetorically, crossing his arms. "Whining!"

"Yeah, well, you're being a jerk!"

"Whatever," Alvin rolled his eyes and moved past her so that he could go back into the van.

He had been wrong. Things _weren't_ going back to normal. They were always going to be the same.

* * *

_Ha. I love Alvin and Brittany. They're both so stubborn!_

_I hope you guys liked this chapter. Please review letting me know what you thought about it! Next chapter should be up soon._


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** _I'm on a writing roll!_

_Enjoy. :)_

* * *

"D-do you think we should go see how Alvin and Brittany are doing with the tents?"

"No, let them create whatever mess they're going to make and then come back inside so we can listen to them whine about it."

Jeanette couldn't help but smile at the sound of Simon's dry response. Whenever he turned to look at her, his lips curved upwards, causing her own shy smile to widen.

"It's too bad Juliet couldn't come," Theodore said with a sigh, not looking at any of them. "She's great at stuff like this."

That hadn't been the first time that he'd mentioned his girlfriend since they'd been on the trip, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Jeanette thought it was endearing how much Theodore seemed to be missing Juliet already, but clearly her younger sister thought differently.

"Oh, is she?" Eleanor asked, her eyebrows raised.

Theodore nodded, oblivious to the bitterness that laced her words. He turned to look at Eleanor, a dreamy smile flitting across his features as he seemed to become lost in thought. "Yeah, her dad's actually been taking her camping every other summer since she was little. Isn't that neat?"

Eleanor merely gave him a blank stare until he was forced to look away.

"Well, we could use someone who actually knew what they were doing," Simon remarked. "I highly doubt Alvin and Brittany do."

Theodore and Jeanette slowly nodded in agreement, whereas Eleanor narrowed her eyes at Simon. Without another word she stood and made her way to the back of the van, now sitting as far away from the others as possible.

Jeanette frowned. The blonde haired Chipette had been acting a bit strange ever since their first night in the van. One second Eleanor would be her usual self, and then the next she'd get snappy and moody... and Jeanette couldn't help but notice that the moodiness usually kicked into effect whenever Juliet was brought up.

She stood and walked over to Eleanor before casually sitting down next to her.

"Eleanor," she greeted politely. When Eleanor only gave her a small nod of acknowledgement, she added, "Are... are you alright?"

Eleanor didn't say anything, and at first Jeanette didn't think she'd give her a response at all until she finally said, "I'm fine, Jeanette."

"Are you sure? I don't mean to... to pry or a-anything like that, you just seem to be... well..."

"Suddenly annoyed with the world?" Eleanor finished for her. Jeanette nodded.

"Y-you can talk to me if there's something... _wrong_, you know."

"Nothing's wrong," her sister smiled softly, the hardened expression finally leaving her face. "I'm just being stupid and I need to stop being a baby about things that I have no right to be upset over." She shrugged. "I'll get over it."

"Get over what?" Jeanette asked, her concern growing, but Eleanor didn't say. She simply shrugged again and then went to go sit back beside Theodore.

"Everything alright?" Simon asked Jeanette once she'd sat back down beside him.

She nodded, but before she could say anything the door to the van swung open.

No one was surprised whenever Alvin and Brittany both stomped inside, angry looks on their faces.

"Did you finish—" Dave started to ask from his spot at the driver's seat, but he was quickly interrupted.

"No!" Alvin yelled at Dave. "We _didn't_ finish the stupid tents, because they're broken! You bought broken tents!"

"Broken?" Dave repeated with a frown, while Alvin simply nodded in response and plopped down in one of the van's empty seats.

Everyone eyed the two warily; clearly something must have happened while they were trying to set up the tents.

Brittany rolled her eyes before turning to Dave. "They're not broken," she explained. "Alvin's just mad because he made the tents that we worked hard on fall over." She paused before adding, "Well, at least I worked hard on _my_ tent."

"Oh, so now that's _my_ fault?" he demanded.

"Might as well be." the pink-clad Chipette glared at him. "Everything else is!"

"They got knocked over by the wind! Last time I checked, I'm not mother nature." Alvin rolled his eyes.

Jeanette looked over at Simon, who had decided to speak up so that no one would have to be subject to anymore of Alvin and Brittany's endless bickering.

"I highly doubt that the tents are _broken_," he said, which earned him a glare from his older brother. "Perhaps they just need someone who actually knows what they're doing to set them up."

"Oh yeah, like you know how to set up a tent." Alvin scoffed.

"Yeah!" Brittany snapped, before she gasped, probably shocked that she'd agreed with Alvin. She quickly added, "You know just as much about building tents as we do, Simon, so don't try to act like some annoying know it all."

"Fair enough. But I don't see anyone else offering to set them up." Simon retorted calmly, crossing his arms.

"Maybe we could give it a try, Ellie." Theodore said, smiling at her.

Eleanor avoided his gaze, staring at her hands. "No, thanks." She shook her head. "Simon would probably know what he's doing."

"Way to be on my side!" Brittany growled, stomping her foot.

"Well, you're the one who wasn't able to put up one of the tents." Eleanor said with a shrug.

"Yeah, Brittany," Alvin smirked.

Brittany opened her mouth to yell something at him, probably an insult or two, but Eleanor spoke up again before she could. "And neither were you, Alvin. Don't be a hypocrite."

"Yeah, Alvin," Brittany repeated mockingly.

"Well, I'm going to go try to set up the tents while the majority of you will probably continue to waste your time acting like five year olds." Simon announced. He then turned to look at his counterpart expectantly. "Would you maybe like to help me, Jeanette?"

Jeanette's green eyes slightly widened in surprise. Her? Try to set up a tent? She could only imagine how much she'd mess it up...

Despite herself, she nodded timidly.

"Do you guys want my help? I didn't think they'd be that hard to put up." Dave said, still frowning.

Simon paused before he quickly shook his head. "No, I think Jeanette and I can figure it out on our own." he said, smiling at her as he spoke.

Jeanette bit her lip to fight the uncharacteristically huge grin that was threatening to break out across her face at the sound of that.

* * *

Moments later, Jeanette found herself staring at the discarded instructions that she'd found on the ground.

She knew that putting the tent together couldn't be _too_ challenging, it was just that she was scared she'd somehow find a way to mess it up. What if she tripped over something and ripped a hole in the tent? The sad thing was that she could definitely see such a thing actually happening.

She peered over at Simon through the lens of her pink framed glasses to see how he was doing, and an unintentional sigh escaped her lips.

It was no secret to her that she'd had feelings for Simon for a good while now. It was simply just a secret to everyone else.

She'd always known that she'd felt _something_ for him that went beyond friendly feelings. At first, she'd tried to ignore ridiculous thoughts like that and had just pushed them away. How could Simon ever like her like that? He was just her best friend. But she couldn't keep pushing them away, and eventually she just allowed herself to come to terms with her feelings.

Still, that didn't mean she'd ever tell anyone about those feelings. The shy Chipette couldn't fathom admitting something like that, mostly because they weren't just small feelings. She knew she loved him.

It hadn't taken Jeanette a while to realize the strong feelings that she held for him, but the first time she'd realized what she actually felt for him was love was on the night of their first freshmen year dance.

Simon had decided he wouldn't be going, insisting that he needed to finish working on an extremely important experiment.

She had been more than disappointed, mostly due to the fact that she'd been hoping that maybe Simon would ask her to go to the dance with him. Theodore and Eleanor were supposed to be going together, and Alvin and Brittany were obviously going together. She knew that she was stupid to hope for such a thing, but she had felt hopeful nonetheless.

She'd still gone to the dance anyway, mostly because Brittany and Eleanor refused to let her stay at home.

"You'll feel like a loser if you miss out on your first high school dance!" Brittany had insisted, whereas Eleanor had told her, "Don't let one boy ruin your night. It'll be fun, you can even dance with me!"

Brittany had actually managed to find a date for her in no time... a tall, lanky boy who seemed to love to hear the sound of his own voice, because he constantly talked the entire time and never let Jeanette get a word in.

Not that she cared too much about holding a decent conversation with him anyway. As she watched the others dance and have a nice time, Jeanette had felt a strange feeling of longing in the pit of her stomach. She had wished she could have been having that much fun.

Eventually she couldn't take it and she'd excused herself. She would have worried about whether her date would have minded or not, but he was too busy flirting with some of the older girls to even take notice of her leaving.

Jeanette had then went outside to the parking lot and sat down, staring up at the sky as she quickly became lost in her thoughts. She thought about a lot of things, like dances and experiments and a certain boy who was on her mind far too often.

"Jeanette?" a voice had burst her out of her thoughts, and she'd looked up in surprise to see Simon of all people staring at her.

"What are you..." she'd started to say, before her breath caught in her throat when he held out his hand. She'd gratefully took it and stood.

"Alvin told me it was stupid of me to miss out on my first high school dance," Simon had said with a nervous laugh, running a hand through his hair. "And I suppose he was right."

"It's n-not everyday you hear you say t-that Alvin's right..."

Simon had laughed again before he raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing out here? Why aren't you inside with the others?" he'd asked.

"Oh..." Jeanette remembered how warm her cheeks had felt at that question. "I wasn't really... w-well, I wasn't having m-much fun in there."

He'd stared at her for a moment before a smile grew on his face. "It would be a shame if we didn't have any fun at our first high school dance. Will you dance with me, Jeanette?"

Jeanette had looked at him in shock, completely taken off guard by his offer. She'd managed to let out a nervous "o-okay" before they began to dance together.

It was clumsy and awkward and each time Jeanette stepped on Simon's feet he'd assured her that it was fine. Jeanette had found herself having much more fun in the parking lot with Simon than she'd been having inside, and he seemed to be having fun too.

For some reason she'd allowed the silly hope that had built up inside of her to grow after that night, but nothing had happened. They'd went on acting like they were nothing but best friends. There wasn't even a word for what Jeanette had felt after that, it was beyond the definition of disappointment.

That moment they'd shared did teach her one thing, though. She loved him.

She only wished he felt the same way.

"Do you need some help?" Simon's voice burst her out of her thoughts.

She blinked in surprise, her cheeks turning red.

"N-no..." she quickly shook her head. He'd caught her staring at him and now he probably thought she was an idiot. She wrung her hands nervously. "I-I've got it, thank you."

Jeanette busied herself by putting the tent together and refusing to look at him again. No wonder Simon would never return her feelings, look at how much she managed to mess things up!

As she became distracted by her thoughts, Jeanette stopped paying complete attention to what she was doing. She moved to pick the instructions back up once she didn't know what do with the tent next, but that had been a mistake. Her foot became twisted in what she'd built of the tent so far, and she fell to the ground with a startled cry, bringing the tent with her.

Simon was quick to help her up, a frown on his face.

"Are you alright?" he asked, dusting the dirt off of her sweater for her.

She nodded but refused to open her mouth to speak, feeling further embarrassed.

"I finished the other tent. Why don't you let me help you with this one?" he said, and Jeanette could only nod again.

The two then got to work on the tents, and before they knew it they had finished.

"Yeah, they definitely aren't broken." Simon said, causing Jeanette to smile softly.

He then suddenly turned to look at her.

"Um, Jeanette?"

She didn't take notice of the nervousness in his voice. Instead she simply said, "Yes?"

"Do you remember how I told you that I needed to tell you something?" he asked, and that certainly got her attention.

"I do," she nodded slowly. She'd forgotten about it until he had just mentioned it, but now that he'd caused her to remember, she felt just as curious as she had when he'd first brought it up.

"Well... I—"

"Hey, you guys got the tents set up!" Theodore's cheerful voice said.

Simon and Jeanette both turned to see the others making their way out of the van. Jeanette could have sworn she heard Simon irritably mutter something under his breath.

"Nice job, you guys," Eleanor smiled, admiring the tents.

Alvin and Brittany both crossed their arms and glared at the tents, pouting.

"A-are you still going to t-tell me..." Jeanette started to ask, but she fell silent when Simon shook his head.

"Never mind," he said. "I'll tell you later."

She frowned, but didn't push it.

She was beginning to feel like she'd never know what it was that he wanted to talk to her about.

* * *

_Simon and Jeanette don't have very good luck, do they?_

_By the way, it'd be nice if I got some reviews with your honest opinions instead of reviews telling me what couple to write next... I'm glad you guys like this story so far and I know some of you probably want to read about your favorite couple over the rest, but this is going to be a fair story and all of the couples are going to get their own time to shine._

_So don't worry. No one is going to get left out. :)_

_Anyway, __I hope you guys liked this chapter and PLEASE review!_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:**_ God, Theodore is so hard to write for me. I think it's because I'm so different from him._

_But even though this chapter was hard to write, it was still fun. I don't like it all that much, but it's decent I guess. Either way, I hope you guys like it!_

* * *

For once in his life, Theodore wasn't paying much attention to the food in front of him.

He was too busy thinking about things.

For the past three days that they'd been camping, Eleanor had been acting pretty... _weird_ about things. He couldn't possibly understand why she was acting so moody all of a sudden, but he wished that he could understand! It was starting to kind of really hurt his head.

Whenever Dave had told the boys about the camping trip idea, he'd been pretty excited about it. Theodore liked the idea of camping, he always had. It was fun, and what better way to start off his summer than spending a week around Dave, his brothers, and his best friends?

The only thing that could make it better would be Juliet tagging along with them.

He'd asked Dave about it, and while Dave had been a little reluctant to agree at first, he had been fine with it. It was Juliet's dad who didn't want her to go, insisting that he just didn't know Dave well enough to let his daughter go spend an entire week under his supervision only.

Theodore had to admit that while he wasn't having a bad time so far in any means, he did miss Juliet a lot already.

He'd never thought that he would grow so close to Juliet. Sure, he'd had his little crush on her whenever he had been little, but he'd eventually gotten over it. It had just been a little kid crush, after all. In all honesty he'd sort of forgotten about Juliet as the years went by, not thinking much of her aside from the occasional classes that she would have with him or the times that she would pass by him in the school hallways.

They'd only started talking again because Theodore had helped her out one day whenever he'd noticed her sitting at a lunch table by herself, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He'd ignored the curious stares from his brothers and the Chipettes whenever he didn't sit down at their usual table and instead sat down next to Juliet, asking her if she was okay and offering her half of his homemade chocolate chip cookie. He even gave her the bigger half!

She'd thanked him for the cookie before telling him about how she was stressed about losing one of her closest friends over an argument that they'd gotten into. He'd told her that if she ever felt like she needed a friend to talk to then she could always talk to him.

Whenever he'd stood to go sit at his normal table, Juliet had stopped him and shyly asked if he would sit with her for the rest of the lunch period, and so he did.

That was how it had all started.

They'd started spending a lot more time together after that. Theodore was happy to be a friend to someone who needed it. But he quickly started to realize that the little crush he'd had on Juliet whenever he had been little had quickly managed to resurface after spending so much time with her again.

He sat with her at lunch almost frequently, he walked with her to her classes, and he'd even gone to a school dance with her after working up the courage to ask her to go with him as friends.

He'd quickly gotten stressed once he'd taken notice of those all too familiar feelings coming back to him. He'd even gotten so desperate that he had done the unthinkable... he'd asked Alvin for help with Juliet again.

Whenever he'd asked his brother for help with the same exact girl whenever they'd been little, things had gone very, very wrong. Which was why he had been reluctant to ask Alvin for help again... but who else did he have to turn to?!

"Listen, Theodore," Alvin had said, "you've got to stop screwing around! What are you _waiting_ for?"

Theodore had been confused, which was why he'd asked him, "W-what do you mean?"

"I mean, ask her out already!" Alvin had snapped.

The youngest chipmunk had desperately attempted to explain to Alvin that he wasn't sure if he was ready for that, he'd only just recently decided to face that he was starting to get just a _crush_ on Juliet again, but Alvin hadn't been listening.

"If you're in deep enough already where you've got to ask me for advice, don't waste your time. Ask her out." he had insisted.

"Can't you come with me to do it?" Theodore had whimpered.

But Alvin had refused.

"No way! I don't want to go anywhere near her! She's _crazy_."

"She's not crazy," Theodore had muttered defensively.

"You're right, I can't blame her for having great taste and not being able to resist someone like me." Alvin had quickly agreed. "But I'm not dealing with her again. Just ask her out yourself."

"But... are you sure? W-what if she doesn't say yes?" Theodore had asked, his green eyes wide.

"I can't help you with that, girls _always_ say yes to me. Try asking Simon about that one!" Alvin had told him, before muttering something about being late for basketball practice and rushing off, leaving a very anxious and confused Theodore in his wake.

Eventually, Theodore had decided to actually take his brother's advice. He asked Juliet out on a date. Granted, he had been so nervous when he'd done it that he had spilled his orange juice all over her, but once he'd helped her clean it off she had told him yes.

Then one thing led to another, and before Theodore knew it, Juliet was officially his girlfriend.

Theodore wasn't so sure how much stronger his feelings were for Juliet and if they had even gotten past the crush stage yet, but he was young and naive and in his mind as long as he was happy it was fine. Besides, relationships took time! He'd never been in one until he'd gotten with Juliet, so it wasn't like he was speaking from experience... but he figured that things like serious feelings would take time. For now he was just happy with what he and Juliet had.

He just wished he could understand what was up with Eleanor lately. What was it that was bothering her that kept causing her to snap at him every time he'd mention Juliet? Theodore couldn't imagine what it could be...

Oh, maybe she was doing that thing that girls did! Alvin had mentioned it once whenever he'd gotten into a fight with Brittany. What was it called again?

PMSing! That was it!

Theodore nodded to himself. That was probably why Eleanor was being so moody!

"Um, Theodore?" a voice said, causing him to look up in surprise.

Theodore looked over at Eleanor. Ironically, he hadn't even noticed her walking up to stand beside him. "Huh?"

"You're... um... well, you're squirting the mustard onto your hand instead of your sandwich." Eleanor pointed out with a grimace.

Theodore frowned and looked down at the sandwich that he'd forgotten he'd been making. He gasped once he saw that Eleanor was right.

"Oh," he smiled while Eleanor laughed. "I guess I just... got a little distracted."

Eleanor returned his smile and leaned over to grab a few napkins. He gratefully took them and wiped away at his hand before continuing to make his sandwich while Eleanor started to make her own.

"I actually came over here to talk to you." Eleanor said suddenly.

"Oh, about what?" Theodore didn't look up from his sandwich whenever he spoke this time. He was now fully concentrated on putting the meal together as if his life depended on it. If he didn't take his time, his sandwich wouldn't end up perfect!

"About the way I've been acting. I wanted to say sorry."

That got him to look up.

"What do you mean?" he asked, deciding to play dumb.

Eleanor finished making her own sandwich and sat down on the nearby ice cooler after she'd gotten two sodas for the both of them out of it. She waited for Theodore to finish with his sandwich before patting the empty spot on the cooler next to her. He gladly sat down beside her.

"I know I've been acting pretty unfair with you lately." Eleanor continued once they were both sitting down. She casually took a bite of her sandwich. "I just wanted to say sorry."

Theodore wasn't really sure what to say. He was happy that Eleanor was apologizing, he was still just a little confused. At least he now he knew that he hadn't been imagining the weird way she'd been acting. He only wished that she would have explained further on why she'd been acting the way that she had... but he decided not to press it.

Instead, he just smiled cheerfully at her. "It's okay, Eleanor! Don't worry about it."

Eleanor smiled right back.

They ate their sandwiches in a comfortable silence after that. As Theodore chewed, he looked around to take notice of what everyone else was doing.

Dave was sitting in one of the lawn chairs that they'd set outside, messing around with a fishing pole that he'd brought with him.

Simon was helping Jeanette, who had dropped a sandwich she'd made on the ground and continuously kept apologizing for it.

Brittany was nowhere to be seen, and that was because she'd insisted she wasn't hungry and wanted to stay inside of the tent so that the humid weather wouldn't mess up her hair. Theodore didn't see Alvin anywhere either, but he had no idea where he was.

"I think we're expected to be the normal ones on this trip anyway." Eleanor spoke up again.

Theodore looked at Simon and Jeanette. His brother was now helping a flustered Jeanette put together another sandwich. Then Theodore thought about how Alvin and Brittany weren't even in sight.

"Well, uh... someone's got to do it!" he joked, earning a laugh from Eleanor, which in return caused him to smile. He'd always loved the sound of her laugh.

They then talked idly about whatever came to their minds. Theodore was happy to be having a normal conversation with Eleanor again; it felt like it had been way too long since something like that had happened between the two of them! He'd never realized just how important a friendly, casual conversation could really be.

"Oh, shoot," Eleanor said suddenly. She narrowed her eyes at her sandwich. "I don't think I put enough mayonnaise on this! I'm running out already."

"Here, I'll get it!" Theodore offered. As he stood, he blurted out, "Juliet hates mayonnaise, you know."

He had his back turned as his eyes scanned the table for the mayonnaise bottle, so he didn't notice Eleanor's frustrated expression.

"No, I _didn't_ know that. Thank you _so_ much for filling me in on that unnecessary detail that I didn't care about at all, Theodore." she snapped, surprising him.

He turned back around, forgetting about the mayonnaise. "I-I thought you said you... you were going to stop that." he frowned nervously.

Eleanor sighed. She stood, her expression unreadable. "Okay, I'm sorry. I really am. I'm not trying to act like this! But you're really not making it easy here." she said, which only made him even more confused.

He stared at her, at a loss for words, and she sighed again.

"Look, Theodore. I'm really glad that you're so happy with Juliet that you can't stop talking about her for five seconds," Eleanor's words weren't spoken in a mean tone of voice whenever she said them, but Theodore couldn't help but feel hurt by them, "but just... just do me a favor and please don't talk about her around me anymore, okay?"

With that Eleanor turned on her heel and disappeared inside the tent that the girls had been sleeping in.

Now Theodore was more confused than ever!

He needed someone to talk to about what had been going on and what had just happened. And he knew just the person to talk to; the person that he almost always went to whenever he was having the rare girl problems that he did have.

"Dave," Theodore said, "where's Alvin?"

"I think he might be in the van." Dave told him, before going back to working on trying to fix up his fishing pole.

Theodore walked back over to the table where the sandwiches were. He started to make yet another sandwich, except this one wouldn't be for him.

As he put the sandwich together, he was careful not to put any tomatoes on it— Alvin _hated_ tomatoes. Once he was finished he carefully pressed the second piece of bread on top and then walked into the van.

"Alvin?" he called, spotting his oldest brother lounging on the long seat in the very back. "Can I talk to you?"

Whenever Alvin didn't answer, Theodore wondered if maybe he had come in at a bad time. What if his brother was still in a bad mood? He was tempted to turn back around and head back outside, but then he noticed that Alvin wasn't ignoring him after all. He was just listening to his cassette player.

Theodore walked over to him and carefully pulled the headphones off of Alvin's head. Alvin sat up and glared at him.

"Hey! What do you want?"

"I made you a sandwich, if you want it." Theodore said, handing him the sandwich.

Alvin eyed it warily. "No tomatoes?"

Theodore shook his head. "Nope!"

He waited a few moments after that to work up the nerve to ask Alvin what he wanted to ask him.

"Um, Alvin?" he said, chewing on his bottom lip nervously.

"What?" Alvin said through a mouthful of sandwich.

"Can I... can I talk to you about something?" Theodore asked.

"Okay, what?"

Theodore sighed after that, going silent. How could he talk about this to Alvin whenever he didn't even really completely understand the situation himself? Eventually he said, "Eleanor's been acting really weird lately. And I don't know why!"

"Weird how?" Alvin pressed.

"She's been acting kind of upset lately. I don't know if that's the right word for it, but..." Theodore shrugged. "She keeps snapping at me, a-and Eleanor _never_ snaps at me! Sometimes she even seems almost, well, _mad_ at me."

"She gets mad all the time now, or what?"

"Just whenever I bring up Juliet," Theodore said.

"And?" Alvin cocked an eyebrow at him, as if he were waiting for him to get to the point.

"That's it, I think..."

Alvin stared at him. Theodore stared back, except instead of a blank stare he was frowning. Was he missing something?

"Oh, c'mon, Theodore!" Alvin said once he'd lost his patience. "Eleanor's obviously _jealous_."

"Why would she be jealous?" he asked in disbelief.

"Because she likes you," his brother said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Theodore smiled. "Well, I like Eleanor too! She's practically my best frie—"

"No, I mean... like, _like_ likes you." Alvin quickly interrupted.

Oh.

"Huh? Ellie and I are just friends!"

"Would a friend get mad if you talked about your girlfriend in front of them?" the red clad chipmunk asked rhetorically.

Theodore frowned again. He paused to consider it before looking over at Alvin. "Um, would they?"

"No!" Alvin snapped, rolling his eyes.

The idea of Eleanor liking him as more than a friend was a lot to take in, and frankly, he still wasn't really convinced that that was what was really going on. And... well... it wouldn't be the first time that Alvin was wrong about something, anyway. But he still needed to get advice somehow, so he decided to just play along with that idea for a little bit.

"Well, what should I do then?" he said.

"Talk to her about it or whatever," Alvin shrugged, taking another bite of his sandwich and then wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I... I can't just go up to her and talk to her about it!" Theodore cried, shaking his head firmly.

Alvin narrowed his blue eyes at him. "Why not? You can't just sit there and not do anything about it either! If you want someone, you got to go for it, Theodore. Or else it'll be too late eventually!" He looked like he was about to say something else, but something that he'd said seemed to catch his own self off guard as he fell silent.

Theodore tried to let those words process in his head. Maybe Alvin was actually right, in a way...

"What do you mean if I want someone?" he asked, once he was able to sort of wrap his mind around what Alvin had said. "I don't... don't _want_ Eleanor. I just want her to go back to normal!"

"Well that's what I meant then!" Alvin snapped, standing up. "Anyway, I have to go—"

"B-b-but where are you going?!" Theodore cried out, clinging to his arm. "I'm still confused, I... I still need help!"

Alvin yanked his arm away. "Figure it out yourself!" he told him, before disappearing out of the van.

Theodore sighed, slumping back in one of the empty van seats.

He didn't think he'd ever felt so confused in his entire life.

* * *

_Theodore was so tough to write that I have half a mind to not even feel sorry for him._

_Just kidding. A little._

_Well, that chapter wasn't the best, but I don't think it was terrible either. Next chapter should be up soon. Don't forget to review!_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**_ I'm so excited to be writing this chapter... because I get to write for Brittany again! Yay!_

_She's like... a huge relief to write for after having to write so many chapters in POVs that I'm not used to writing in, lol. I'm most comfortable when I'm writing for Brittany because she's the easiest for me to write. So after five chapters of challenging myself, I get to go back to my comfort zone for this one. :)_

_Hope you guys like it!_

* * *

Brittany glared down at the magazine in her hands. How many times had she read it? Five times? Ten times? Twenty?

She was getting sick of looking over the pages that she'd already read countless times by now. She'd do anything to be able to buy a new issue, one that wasn't outdated and had actual _new_ news in it about all of the latest gossip.

Really though, she'd do anything to just be able to be back home. She was having a miserable time, just like she'd known she would.

She couldn't believe that her summer had started out the way that it had! It was the exact opposite of what she had wanted.

She'd imagined a glamorous start to her summer, filled with countless shopping trips and hanging out with her friends. She'd forget all about her break up with Alvin and just have all sorts of fun, maybe even meet a new cute boy over the summer and hopelessly fall in love with him like in that movie _Grease_.

But no, instead she was stuck hiding in a stupid little tent, angrily reading a magazine that she'd already read to give herself something to do.

Her summer was _ruined!_

... Okay, maybe putting it like that was a _little_ dramatic. They'd only been camping for a few days, and they'd be home soon enough. She still had her entire summer ahead of her. She just couldn't help but feel upset and bitter that the start of her summer had already been messed up, all because her sisters just had to convince her to go with them on a stupid camping trip with Dave, Simon, Theodore, and... _him_.

Ugh. Just the thought of Alvin got her blood boiling.

She couldn't believe how he had been acting! Actually, yeah, she could believe it. But she was _sick_ of it.

She would have been totally fine with just the two of them ignoring each other and not giving one another the time of day, but things clearly weren't playing out like that.

First there was the annoyingly positive attitude that he kept displaying the entire time. Would it kill him to maybe at least pretend to be a little upset over their break up? She knew that he was a jerk, but they'd dated for three years! Didn't he have a _heart_? It was like all he wanted to do was rub it in Brittany's face that he was happy and not upset at all!

Not only that, though, but he'd been outright trying to bother her.

Every time she'd say something, it was like he had some smart remark to say right back to it, even if she wasn't talking to him. That wasn't anything new, it was just the way that he was doing it that really made her angry! And he'd clearly been talking about her whenever he had told his pathetic little scary story. Plus, he'd had the nerve to try and start something with her whenever they'd tried to build the tents together!

Still... she couldn't help but admit that in the past few days that they'd been camping, she'd already started to think mixed thoughts about Alvin again. And that was what scared her.

She didn't want to start thinking like that again. She didn't want to let him get to her. She wanted to be strong, to be able to put Alvin in her past like she'd been so determined to do and just get over him. Which was exactly why she hadn't wanted to go on the stupid camping trip... she'd known something like this would happen.

He was like a disease, in a way. A really annoying disease that refused to go away. She could get rid of him for a little while, but he'd always find a way to get back into her system. She hated it, she really did.

Brittany sighed and tossed her magazine to the side. If she didn't have to read that thing for another ten years, it would be too soon.

She was a little ashamed that she'd reduced to hiding away in the tent from everyone else for the rest of the day, but she didn't care. If she had to be bored out of her mind, so be it. She didn't want to be around anyone.

Having to be around Simon and Jeanette was just sickening, what with the way that they acted around one another.

Her sister's shy blushes and stammers and Simon's... well, whatever it was that Simon did whenever it came to stuff like that. Whatever, she didn't care! All she knew was that with the mood she had been in ever since her break up with Alvin, having to see two people that liked each other actually get to be happy around one another just made her want to puke.

She didn't want to be around Theodore or Eleanor, either. Eleanor had been acting way too moody recently, and while Brittany didn't know why, frankly she didn't care about that either. Everyone seemed to be having their own problems, which meant that they weren't focusing on _her_! That was annoying.

And she definitely didn't want to have to be around Alvin.

He was the main reason she was hiding away in the tent. If she stayed as far away from him as possible and avoided him as much as she could, he wouldn't get to her. Problem solved! God, she loved how smart she could be.

Just as she was thinking that, the front to the tent opened.

"What?" Brittany snapped, glaring at her younger sister. She'd already told Jeanette countless times that she was fine staying in the tent right where she was, and yet her sister kept coming back into the tent every fifteen minutes or so asking Brittany if she wanted to come out with everyone else or not.

"Um... I-I was just w-wondering if—"

"I already told you that I don't want to go outside today." Brittany interrupted, waving a careless hand in the air. "I want to be alone. Now go away."

"B-but are you s-sure, Brittany?" Jeanette nervously pressed, chewing on her lower lip.

She sighed. "If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have told you a _million_ times that I was." she pointed out.

"Well... well we're all g-going to—"

Before her more timid sister could get anything else out, Eleanor popped up beside her in the tent, grinning at Brittany.

"Get up, lazy!" Eleanor said, grabbing Brittany by the arm and attempting to pull her up.

Brittany, however, simply glared at her and pulled her arm away. "Someone's in a much better mood now," she muttered bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Eleanor asked, causing Brittany to just roll her eyes and shake her head.

"Brittany says s-she doesn't w-want to come out." Jeanette piped up again.

Eleanor playfully narrowed her eyes at Brittany. "And why not?" she demanded.

"Because I don't want the weather to mess up my hair," Brittany insisted, gritting her teeth.

"Who cares?" Eleanor laughed, rolling her brown eyes. "We're all going to go check out a river that's near here."

"Good for you," the stubborn Chipette growled, turning away from her sisters defiantly.

"Jeez, what's got her in such a bad mood?" Eleanor asked Jeanette, who could only shrug in response.

Brittany snorted. "You're one to talk," she said under her breath, just loud enough for Eleanor to hear.

But she didn't bother saying anything about it. "If you decide to stop being a cranky stick in the mud, let us know! We're going to go have some actual fun. Have a nice time sitting here doing nothing." Eleanor joked, before dragging Jeanette out of the tent with her.

Brittany silently fumed to herself. Was it too much to ask for them to just leave her alone for a little while? They'd dragged her out on the stupid camping trip, the least they could do was let her have at least a little bit of peace and do what she wanted, which was stay inside of the tent.

She got comfortable under the blankets that she'd previously slept in last night, reaching forward to grab the dumb magazine and attempt at reading it again. Whenever she went to lay her head back on one of the pillows, it hit something hard, causing her to bolt upright in shock.

"Ow!" Brittany whined, moving the pillow away, only to reveal a hardcover book hidden under it. She narrowed her eyes. "Jeanette," she growled, shoving the book aside and laying back down, settling her attention back on the magazine.

She tried to focus on the words in front of her, but her eyes started to get droopy. She did feel a little sleepy. A tiny nap couldn't hurt her...

The Chipette yawned and allowed the magazine to fall out of her hands, turning over to her side as her eyes fluttered closed.

She was nearly asleep whenever she heard the sound of the tent being unzipped again, which caused her to sit up in annoyance, any traces of tiredness gone. Why didn't Eleanor and Jeanette understand that she wanted to be left alone?!

"I told you two to _go away_! I don't care about whatever it is tha—" Brittany started to yell, before she was shocked into silence once she saw who had actually been opening the tent. Her eyes narrowed. "_You!_ What are _you_ doing here?" she demanded once she'd regained her composure.

Alvin looked her up and down. "Why are you still in your pajamas?" he asked casually.

"Answer my question first," she said firmly, crossing her arms.

"To see you," he said, before adding in annoying tone of voice, "duh."

Brittany stared at him in disbelief. Did he have short term memory loss or something?

"Oh, great. Are you here to act like a jerk just like you've been acting this entire trip?" she asked, continuing before he could even say anything, "Or maybe you're here because you think you can pretend that everything is okay and that I'd actually want to see you! Well, I don't. So leave me alone."

"I'm not here because of _either_ of those things." Alvin insisted.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? Then what do you want?"

"To talk," he replied, which actually made her laugh out loud.

How ironic of him.

"So now you want to talk?" she rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Well, it's a little too late for that, in case you haven't noticed."

"But we're talking right now," the red capped chipmunk pointed out with a smirk.

"Why are you such an ass?" Brittany snapped, resisting the urge to punch him in the face.

"Why are you such a bitch?" he shot back.

She gasped, staring at him in surprise. "Excuse me?!"

"Hey, you called me a name first." Alvin shrugged.

Brittany only felt herself growing angrier by the minute. She'd decided to stay in the tent because she wanted to get away from Alvin, and yet here he was, being the obnoxious little jerk that he was. Why wasn't he with everyone else? Why couldn't anything ever go the way that she wanted it to?

She opened her mouth to yell at him again, but was quickly interrupted by Alvin.

"Look, Brittany, could you do me a favor?"

"What?" she stared at him skeptically.

"Could you shut up for maybe five seconds so I could tell you something?" Alvin asked. Whenever she started to glare at him again, he added, "I'm serious!"

"Just leave me alone, Alvin!" Brittany snapped. "I don't want to talk to you. You're the reason that my summer's been ruined, you're the reason that I'm in such a bad mood. Everything is your fault, so just leave me alo—"

She stopped whenever she noticed that Alvin was laughing, and that only made her even angrier, if possible.

"What's so _funny?_" she demanded.

"See, that's your problem, Brittany." Alvin said, seemingly amused, whereas Brittany looked the complete opposite of that. "You try to blame everything on everyone else."

Brittany frowned. "I do not!" she said defensively. Who was he to tell her something like that? What a hypocrite!

"Uh, yeah you do." he said, rolling his eyes. "You won't even let me talk to you! And if you would, you would know that I came here to talk to you and say that I was _sorry_. Just like you should be doing too, because it's not _all_ my fault!"

"I've heard your fake apologies way too many times, Alvin. Besides, you haven't even acted like you cared this entire trip." she fired back, fury lacing her words. "And I'm _not_ saying sorry to you!"

Alvin raised his eyebrows. "Thanks for proving my point."

"Get out," she growled.

She wasn't going to put up with this. She'd already told herself that she wouldn't let herself be tricked by Alvin again. She didn't want anything to do with him anymore! Right?

Brittany mentally cursed her sisters. She'd been doing just fine keeping any thoughts of getting back with Alvin out of her head before the camping trip. If she had just been given a chance to be able to be completely away from him, she wouldn't be having the problems that she was having now.

She waited for him to leave, but he didn't.

"Alvin, I said get out." she repeated, louder this time. "Leave me alone."

"No," he said firmly, causing Brittany's eyes to widen.

"You can't tell me no! Get out now." she said, pointing at the entrance of the tent.

Alvin sighed. "Don't you get it?" he asked, before moving closer to her in the tent so that he could take her hand in his. "I can't leave you alone, Britt. I really do want to talk."

Brittany didn't say anything.

This same thing had happened so, so many times. They'd argued and fought and broken up so many times that she'd lost count, but eventually one of them would always end up trying to fix things and make them better. She'd just thought that the last time they'd broken up would be the last time she'd ever have to deal with it.

She'd been doing so good at ignoring thoughts like that. She'd been proud of herself for managing to not even consider forgiving Alvin or making up with him. And now that had all been shattered in a matter of seconds.

Damn him.

"Fine, I guess we can talk." she reluctantly gave in, looking down at their hands. She hesitated before suddenly pulling her hand away, narrowing her eyes at him. "But whenever I say we can talk I only mean _talk_. Got it?"

Alvin rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I don't want to talk in here though." he said, motioning around the tent.

"Why?" she frowned.

"'Cause I just want to do it somewhere else. Somewhere more quiet... more fitting." Alvin said.

Brittany shook her head. And he called _her_ a drama queen.

"This tent isn't quiet and fitting enough?" she asked.

"Nope," Alvin said, grabbing her by the arm and attempting to drag her out of the tent, but she quickly shoved him away.

"At least let me change out of my pajamas!" she hissed.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes again.

She waited for him to leave so she could change, but he only stared at her expectantly.

"Well?" Alvin said, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, get out!" she yelled, pushing him out of the tent. She ignored his snickering and angrily zipped up the tent so that she could change in peace.

As she dug around for a cute outfit, Brittany thought about what she was really getting herself into.

She knew she was going to regret agreeing to talk to Alvin. All of her hard work at not making up with him was going to go completely down the drain.

Them talking about things could only possibly end in two ways. Either they'd make up and things would be okay again, and after convincing herself that she was ready to completely move on from him, Brittany wasn't so sure how she felt about that. But if that didn't happen, that would mean that they'd just end up arguing and angry with each other again.

Those were the only two possible scenarios. She'd never calmly talked something out like a break up with Alvin and they'd never maturely moved on from it and gotten complete closure, so she knew that wasn't going to happen. And to be honest she didn't _want_ something like that to happen, anyway.

Brittany grabbed a cute pink top and one of her favorite pairs of shorts. She changed out of her pajamas and into the outfit, wishing that she had something better to fix her hair in and do her makeup with as she opened one of her many compact mirrors.

She sighed, fluffing up her hair. Maybe she was being dramatic about things again. Talking with Alvin couldn't be too bad, right? It wasn't the end of the world. Maybe she wouldn't even regret agreeing to talk to him once they were done.

A smile slowly came to her face as she thought about that. Yeah, she just needed to stop worrying so much and go with the flow.

But little did she know that she _would_ end up regretting agreeing to go somewhere to talk with Alvin... just not for any of the reasons that she thought she would.

* * *

_Uh oh..._

_Well that was a fun chapter to write._

_Thoughts? Opinions? Let me know in a review. :D_

_Thanks for reading, and the next update should be soon!_


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **_I changed the cover art because I got something that actually fits this story! I wish a camp-ish picture of all six of them existed, but it doesn't. So even though this isn't just an Alvin/Brittany centered story, they get to be the stars of the cover art! Which I'm sure they'd love, so it works. I think that's much better than some random picture of a fire anyway, isn't it?_

_By the way, I've almost gotten 100 reviews on this story! You guys have no idea how happy that makes me. I've never been able to stick with a story long enough to be able to get that many reviews, so I'm really excited about that. Thank you so much to anyone who decides to leave reviews. It means a lot._

_Now, enough with the sappy stuff. Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

Feeling frustrated wasn't something new for Simon. He was used to it. How could he not be, with all of the things that he had to put up with in his life? It was a feeling that he had learned to cope with and even sometimes ignore.

But this time, it was different. He was completely _beyond_ frustrated.

One would think that it wouldn't be so hard for someone to be able to tell another person something whenever they really wanted to. Simon was a very intelligent young chipmunk, and his thoughts were usually never wrong. So why was it that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to catch a break whenever it came to telling Jeanette how he felt?

In a way, it wasn't necessarily his fault. It wasn't like he choked up and couldn't finish telling her whenever he made his attempts. It was just that every time he did try, something or someone would get in the way.

Simon knew that he could just get it over with and blurt it out once and for all, but he didn't want to do it like that. He didn't want it to be some sloppy, unpracticed confession. He wanted it to be polite. He wanted it to be memorable. He wanted it to be... well... romantic. Jeanette deserved that.

He wanted it to be just right. But whenever he'd think it was the perfect time to tell her, he'd get interrupted and would lose his chance at actually getting to say it.

It was enough to make someone want to bang their head into a wall. And worst of all, not once had one of the interruptions been over something actually important! It was always something that could have been said later on.

Possibly the worst part of it all was the constant reminder that he was failing at something. Simon wasn't like his oldest brother; he wasn't competitive and he didn't mind getting beaten. But whenever it came to things like not being able to complete a certain task or not managing to succeed at something that he knew he could, it drove him absolutely insane.

Telling Jeanette how he felt was one of those things that he knew he could do. For years he'd had his doubts, and even now he still did. But deep down, he knew that he could tell her and that if he didn't do it soon enough then it would eventually be too late. By now it wasn't so much that he was too nervous to tell her, just that no one was letting him! Every time he'd try, something would ruin it.

He unintentionally let out an audible sigh, momentarily forgetting that he was still surrounded by other people despite getting wrapped up in his thoughts.

"W-what is it?" Jeanette asked nervously from beside him, seeming to take notice his sour mood.

Simon forced a smile. "Nothing," he told her shortly, which only caused her to look straight ahead with a frown and grow quiet.

He fell silent again himself, having to force back the urge to sigh again. He was only making things worse, and that was the last thing that he wanted to happen.

"Are we almost there?" Theodore suddenly piped up.

They hadn't been walking for long, but he had already managed to ask that question just about ten times. Simon feared he might strangle him if he did it again.

He wasn't even sure he wanted to go to their planned destination.

Dave had told them about the river that was near and how he figured they might like to go and check it out. Theodore had asked Dave if he'd like to come too, but Dave had said he just wanted to stay back in the van. Simon figured he was trying to give them at least a little space for the trip, which he appreciated. He needed all the space he could get, what with all the interruptions that kept occurring for him. Alvin and Brittany hadn't tagged along with them either, but Simon didn't care enough at the moment to find out why.

"Not yet," Eleanor patted Theodore on the arm comfortingly.

"Okay," Theodore frowned.

Not even a minute later, he asked, "Are we there yet?"

"Do you see a river?" Simon snapped.

Theodore stopped, looked around, then shook his head.

"Then no, we're not there," Simon said.

"Don't worry Theodore, we'll be there soon." Eleanor told him in a much nicer tone of voice. She seemed to be in a better mood than she'd been lately for some reason, and Simon couldn't help but envy her for that.

As they continued walking, Simon glanced over at Jeanette. He saw that she was staring down at her feet while she walked. He quickly looked away.

Perhaps soon he would get a chance to tell her? He hoped so.

Simon had been nervous to tell her how he felt for years. He'd always felt like he couldn't do it. Even whenever they'd been in the van on the way to the camping site, he'd felt anxious about the entire idea that he'd force himself to tell her before the week was over.

But now that he'd actually tried it several times and all of those tries had failed, he was more eager than ever to tell her.

Once he finally got to tell her, all of his frustration would disappear. A huge weight would be lifted off of his shoulders.

Now if only he could get the chance to actually tell her how he felt.

For the past few days, Simon had gotten so caught up in wanting to be able to tell her about his feelings that he had stopped considering what he would do if she didn't return said feelings. But now he was thinking about that too, even. It was like every stressful thought that he'd ever had concerning the matter was now hitting him full force.

He just wanted to be _done_ with it. He wouldn't be able to get any peace until he did!

That was another thing that bothered him greatly. Because he'd been having so much trouble with telling Jeanette that he was in love with her, the task now felt like a chore instead of something that he simply wanted to do.

It was completely annoying... but most of all, it wasn't very fair to Jeanette.

How many times had he told her he needed to talk to her, only to shrug it off and tell her he'd let her know about it later? He knew that she had to be getting curious, maybe even suspicious. He _really_ needed to find a way to tell her somehow.

"Are we there now?" Theodore suddenly started to ask, but Simon quickly shut him up with a glare.

"No, we're not, so _please_ just—"

"We're here!" Eleanor announced, grinning.

Simon frowned, and sure enough, they had arrived at the river. He'd gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed where he was walking.

"It's n-nice," Jeanette spoke up.

Simon figured that she was attempting to get him to talk to her. Normally he'd have no problem with that, but with the way things had been going between them lately, he wasn't even sure what to say. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, his confession would come spilling out in a rushed mess.

"Hey, Theodore, look!" he heard Eleanor say. She bent down next to the river and pointed. "There's a fish right there. See?"

"Wow!" Theodore gasped, looking to see for himself.

The two of them continued to chatter excitedly about the fish that they were spotting while Simon and Jeanette fidgeted nervously beside each other, keeping their eyes on their siblings instead of one another.

Eventually, Simon couldn't take it. He was only further wasting his time. Why wasn't he taking advantage of Eleanor and Theodore getting distracted?

"Hey, Jeanette," he said.

She looked over at him, her green eyes slightly wide. She looked surprised that he'd actually decided to speak up. "Huh?"

Now that she was actually looking at him, he wasn't sure what to do. "Um..." he frowned, allowing his voice to trail off.

Jeanette could only stare at him, patiently waiting for him to continue with what he was going to say.

Of course it was just his luck that he'd choose _now_ to choke up about telling her how he felt.

"Y-you know, i-it can wait if you n-need—" Jeanette started, but he quickly shook his head.

"No!" he cried out, causing her to jump back in shock. He sighed and regained his composure. "I was just..." he looked around, his eyes landing on a flower that wasn't too far off from the river. "I just wanted to show you something."

Jeanette's eyes widened again, this time with interest. "W-what?"

He took her hand and led her over to the flower that he now had set in his sight, ignoring her shocked stutters and the pounding of his own heart. He leaned down and pulled his hand away, beckoning for Jeanette to kneel next to him.

She did so, looking confused.

Before she could say anything, Simon reached forward and picked the flower out of the ground.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing or just why he had suddenly made it his mission to grab some silly flower that hadn't even caught his attention moments prior, but it was helping distract him from the nervous feeling that was starting to take over him.

"It's a wildflower," he explained to Jeanette softly, even though he was sure she already knew that. "Did you know they're becoming a little rare here in California?"

She slowly shook her head. She opened her mouth as if she were about to say something, before closing it again.

"They're very lovely flowers," Simon continued, twirling it around in his hand.

"Y-yes, they are," Jeanette seemed to have found her voice again.

Without thinking much of it, he leaned closer towards her. Her cheeks immediately flushed. Then, carefully, he placed the flower in her hair.

"It's not as lovely as you are, however." he finished sincerely, putting his now empty hands behind his back so that he could freely wring them together. He couldn't believe he was actually managing to go through with this whenever he hadn't even actually planned it out to happen the way that it was.

By now Jeanette's face was as red as a tomato. "I-I... t-t-thank you S-Simon..." she sputtered, reaching up with her own hand to carefully touch the flower. "I-is that all you w-wanted to show me?"

"Actually, I didn't just want to show you something. I wanted to tell you something." Simon said, before quickly adding, "Once and for all this time."

Jeanette smiled nervously. "G-go ahead," she nodded.

"I've been trying to think of a way to tell this to you for a very long time now..." Simon started after he took a deep breath, "but I'm afraid I'm just going to have to go right ahead and say it. Jeanette, I'm in l—"

"Theodore!" a screeching voice stopped him from finishing his sentence.

Simon and Jeanette looked over at the river in shock.

Evidently, Theodore had managed to topple over into the river somehow. It was only a matter of seconds before Eleanor was carefully helping him out of the river.

"Are you alright?" Simon heard Eleanor ask him.

"Y-yeah..." Theodore sniffled.

"I told you not to lean too close!" Eleanor waved a stern finger in his face. Then she looked over at Simon and Jeanette and called out, "Are you guys ready to go back to the van? Theodore needs a towel!"

Simon stared straight ahead, not moving.

The _extreme_ frustration that he had felt earlier?

Now it had simply intensified.

"U-um, okay..." Jeanette said once she realized Simon wouldn't be answering Eleanor for them. She stood up and waited for Simon to do the same.

Simon reluctantly stood, following the others away from the river without another word. He didn't say anything the entire walk back. Not to Jeanette, not to Eleanor, and especially not to Theodore, who kept asking if they were back by the van yet in between shivers.

There was nothing that he could say. Not whenever he'd somehow lost his chance at telling Jeanette how he felt not once, not twice, but three times now. Perhaps he really was a... a failure whenever it came to that certain type of thing.

Oh, how he _hated_ that word.

* * *

_To be honest, I don't like this chapter. It was hard for me to write and I think it just ended up being kind of stupid and rushed... but it's not going to get any better than this, and I need to keep the story going, so yeah. _

_I'm sorry for this crappy chapter you guys. The next one will be better. :(_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** _I got past 100 reviews! YAY! *throws confetti*_

_Now, how about some reviews for this NEW chapter? :D_

_Hope you like it!_

* * *

"I'm c-c-cold!"

"We'll be back before you know it, Theodore."

"What about now?"

"Theodore!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ellie... I'm just _really_ cold."

They hadn't been walking for long, but even Eleanor was starting to lose her patience with Theodore.

She'd been a little upset that they'd had to cut their visit to the river short all because Theodore had gotten a little too distracted by the fish and had leaned in too close (she'd even warned him not to do that!), but she'd managed to push that aside. Theodore was just eager to get a good look at the interesting fish, and she couldn't blame him for that.

She couldn't even blame him for constantly asking if they were back at the van yet, really... he was wet and freezing.

So why was she gritting her teeth in annoyance as they walked back to the van?

Eleanor needed to stop that. She'd told herself she wouldn't be getting unfairly upset with Theodore. Not anymore.

After she'd told Theodore not to talk about Juliet to her whenever they'd been eating their sandwiches together, Eleanor had walked off to sit near Simon and Jeanette and take the time to really think about her situation. And she didn't like what she was thinking.

She hated that she was jealous of Juliet. So jealous that she'd gotten mad at Theodore on multiple occasions whenever she had no right to. So jealous that it had turned her into one of those girls she'd swore she'd never be... a possessive jerk!

Okay, maybe she hadn't exactly turned into _that_, but she still couldn't help but feel like crap for how she'd been acting.

She couldn't believe that she'd let her jealousy get to her so much. She couldn't believe that she had let a boy get to so her much. She couldn't believe that that boy was Theodore!

What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just not worry about it?

She hated how she was stopping herself from having a good time on the trip all because she kept getting wrapped up with stupid things. She'd been so excited to be going camping for a week, and yet all she'd done was act like a baby the whole time... at least, that was what she felt like she was acting like. She didn't want to be that kind of person.

Eleanor had always been independent. She'd never had a guy problem like this before, especially not regarding Theodore. She almost felt disgusted with herself. She was getting mad all because Theodore was finally happy with someone! She had no right to do that, she knew.

Which was why after her last outburst to Theodore, she'd given herself a little mental pep-talk. She'd vowed not to get angry with Theodore anymore all because he had a girlfriend (she'd make herself not even care if he brought her up again!), and she'd be happy for him. She'd stop worrying about it so much, she'd move on, and everything would be okay again.

Of course, he'd been a little confused whenever he'd walked back out of the van and joined her again and noticed her sudden attitude change.

"Eleanor, can I talk to you?" he'd asked, looking nervous for some reason.

She'd smiled, shrugged, and said, "Sure. But let me talk first."

After that she'd told him that she was sorry for telling him not to talk to her about Juliet anymore. She told him that he could talk about his girlfriend however much he wanted, and that she'd be all ears. Then she told him that she knew things had been pretty weird between them the past few days, but that he didn't need to worry and she was going to fix it.

He'd looked a little confused by her words, so she'd added, "And I mean it this time. I'm not going to act weird anymore, trust me." Then she'd asked, "So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

But he'd said it hadn't been important and then suggested that they ask Dave if he'd tell them where the river he'd found was.

Since then the two of them had been acting much more normal around one another, and Eleanor couldn't be happier.

Making things okay again was even easier than she thought! It was a piece of cake. She was already doing a good job with it. She hadn't let her good mood slip not once since she'd promised herself that she'd stop getting upset.

So whenever Theodore asked yet again, "A-are we... _almost_ back at the van?", she'd just shook her head and calmly told him to try to be patient.

Simon, however, wasn't as calm.

"Maybe we'd get there sooner if you'd take two steps without asking if we were there," he said dryly.

"I'm sorry," Theodore let out a sigh.

"Sorry for what? Ruining _everything_?" the bespectacled chipmunk pressed, his voice growing louder with each word.

Theodore frowned. "I'm really sorry, I didn't know seeing the river was so important to y—"

"I'm not talking about the river!" Simon snapped.

Eleanor stopped walking, causing everyone else to do the same. She turned around so that she could glare at Simon.

"Lay off of Theodore! It's not like he fell into the river on purpose." she said.

"I'm aware of that. I know he didn't. Just like everything else wasn't on purpose either." Simon crossed his arms.

"W-what else did I do?" Theodore asked, looking confused.

Simon shrugged. "Don't worry, Theodore," he said, sarcasm lacing his tone, "it's not just you. It's _everyone_!"

"What's your problem?" Eleanor asked.

She was starting to get sick of the way he was acting. Ever since they'd left the river, he'd been pretty moody. Was it really that big of a deal that Theodore had slipped into the river? Like she'd said, he hadn't done it on purpose!

She knew Simon was easily annoyed, but he usually didn't get too upset over something so silly.

"You people are my problem!" Simon said, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation.

"What did we do?!" Eleanor demanded, staring at him in shock.

Next to her, Theodore bit his lip and nervously said, "Whatever it was... w-we're really sorry!"

"I'd still like to know what we even did!" she insisted. "Why are you acting so rude, Simon?"

Simon ignored her question and instead shot back, "Why are you acting so hypocritical?"

"What are you _talking_ about?" Eleanor shook her head. He wasn't making any sense!

"You've had your fair share of mood swings the past few days yourself, Eleanor, so don't you tell me anything." he said.

"That's different, I just—"

Before Eleanor could finish, a voice yelled, "Stop fighting!"

They all turned to look at Jeanette in disbelief, who was anxiously wringing her hands together.

"P-please," she added, much more quietly.

Whenever no one said anything, she continued, "Everyone's b-been acting so s-s-strange, ever since we started this trip! It's... it's s-supposed to be _fun_."

"Yeah..." Theodore muttered, staring at his wet feet.

"You're right," Eleanor nodded.

Simon didn't say anything for a moment. He seemed to be thinking deeply about something until he finally said, "I'm sorry. Let's just get back to the van, okay?"

For the rest of the walk back, everyone was quiet. The only sounds were Theodore's teeth chattering as he shivered.

Eleanor was relieved whenever they'd finally made it back to the van. She'd stayed outside with Simon and Jeanette while Theodore went in to dry off and change into dry clothes. She, Simon, and Jeanette all sat down in the empty lawn chairs and stayed silent as they waited for Theodore.

Everyone really _was_ acting strange. It was as if everyone had _something_ going on that none of the others knew about, which was only causing things to be worse than they already were. Sitting there with Simon and Jeanette, Eleanor felt like she might suffocate from the awkwardness hanging in the air.

She remembered how eager she and Jeanette had been whenever they'd convinced Brittany to agree to going on the trip with them. She'd been so happy to be getting to spend a week with her five best friends, and she remembered not being able to wait for the fun that they'd be able to have! She'd thought that it would be a perfect way to start off their summer.

Clearly, that wasn't turning out to be so true.

She didn't have long to dwell on those kind of thoughts. Theodore was soon stepping out of the van, clad in dry clothes.

"Boy, do I feel better!" he said as he walked over to join them in the lawn chairs they were sitting in. Then he sneezed.

"Bless you," Eleanor and Jeanette said simultaneously.

"Tha—" Theodore tried to say, but he interrupted himself by sneezing two more times.

Simon raised his eyebrows. "Bless you," he said.

"Thanks," Theodore rubbed his nose.

Eleanor stared at him sympathetically. "Sounds like somebody's catching a cold," she announced.

"Oh, no," he groaned. "I don't want to be s-sick on vacation! How could I get sick _now_?"

"You fell into the river and got soaked," Simon reminded him.

Theodore sighed and stared at his hands guiltily.

"Don't worry, Theodore. We'll go fix something to eat to make you feel better. How about some cereal?" Eleanor offered. She smiled. "Kind of late for breakfast, but oh well!"

"Okay!" Theodore nodded eagerly, his eyes immediately brightening.

* * *

Not too long after, Eleanor found herself handing a bowl of cereal to Theodore.

"Thanks, Eleanor," he said cheerfully, before digging in.

"Did you guys want some?" Eleanor asked Simon and Jeanette, who were sitting at the back of the van and were reading some kind of thick book with one another.

"No, but thank you," Simon said.

Jeanette's answer was the same. She looked up at Simon. "Finished?" she asked.

Whenever he nodded, she turned to the next page for them.

Eleanor shrugged and began to make her own bowl. Once she was finished she sat next to Theodore, who had already almost finished his food.

"This is good!" he said, a grin on his face.

Eleanor smiled. She took a bite of her cereal.

They sat in silence for a little while, before Theodore said in a questioning voice, "Hey, Eleanor?"

She looked over at him and prayed that he wouldn't try to bring up any of the problems that had been going on lately. Anything but that, she hoped. His tone sounded serious, and that wasn't something that she wanted to deal with. Not after she'd done such a good job at _not_ letting any issues stir up between them for the rest of the day.

"You don't think I'll get _too_ sick, do you?" he fretted, biting his lip.

Eleanor held back a sigh of relief.

"No," she said. "You'll probably get a little cold, but it shouldn't be so bad."

"Good," Theodore sighed. "I don't want to ruin the trip."

She cracked a smile again. "That wouldn't ruin it! You can't help it if you get sick."

"Y-yeah, but... I'm the one that fell into the river." he said with a frown.

"You couldn't help that either. Don't worry about it." she assured him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He began to smile at her, but she thought of how Theodore had a girlfriend now and pulled her hand away as if she'd been bitten by a snake.

Theodore thankfully didn't seem to notice, though.

She briefly thought about how she hadn't had to worry about doing little things like that before Juliet had come into the picture, but then she'd forced herself to push those thoughts away. She'd promised herself she wouldn't do that.

So what if Theodore had a girlfriend? That didn't mean she still couldn't be a good friend to him and comfort him whenever he needed it, she reminded herself. There wasn't anything wrong with that and she knew it.

The door to the van opened, and Eleanor turned to see Dave.

"Did you guys have fun at the river?" he asked them, stepping inside.

"I wouldn't exactly use the word _fun_ to describe it," Simon said without looking up from the book in his and Jeanette's hands.

Dave looked confused. "Why not?"

"It's a long story. Actually, it's not, but I'm not in the mood to tell it."

"I got sick!" Theodore piped up.

"He fell into the river and we think he might be coming down with a cold," Eleanor explained to Dave.

As if on cue, the green clad chipmunk let out a sneeze.

"Bless you," Dave frowned. "So are Alvin and Brittany still at the river?"

"They didn't come with us," Theodore said.

Dave's eyebrows furrowed together. "Well then where are they?"

"Probably in the tents," Simon shrugged.

"I know Brittany is," Eleanor said. "She's been in our tent all day."

"Yeah, s-she didn't want to come out t-today," Jeanette added in.

Dave's frown deepened. He asked, "Then where's Alvin?"

"Maybe he's in the tent with Brittany!" Theodore suggested.

"Get real, Theodore," Simon rolled his eyes. "They've been arguing nonstop. I doubt they'd willingly be in that tent together."

"Oh..."

"He's probably just in the other tent, then." Eleanor said.

"P-probably," Jeanette nodded in agreement.

"Maybe one of you should go check on them," Dave said. He was still frowning.

Simon sighed and stood up. "I'll go," he offered, before Jeanette stood up after him.

"I-I'll go w-with you..."

Eleanor watched as they left. It was only a couple minutes until they came back into the van... but Alvin and Brittany weren't with them.

"T-they're not in the tents," Jeanette said, shaking her head.

"What?" Dave gasped.

Now Eleanor was beginning to feel a little worried. "Are you sure...?"

"They're not here," Simon frowned.

"What does that mean?" Theodore asked him.

"It means they're missing!"

* * *

_:O_

_WHERE'D THEY GO?_

_We'll find out next chapter. Maybe. ;)_

_Don't forget to review please!_


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:**_ This chapter gave me so much trouble (lol, I accidentally put "drabble" instead of "trouble" whenever I first typed that). I didn't want to rush things, but I didn't want to drag things on, so I've just been really conflicted on what exactly I should make happen in this chapter._

_I hope that everybody who has been waiting for the next Alvin/Brittany chapter isn't disappointed with this. I felt a little pressured about that because I know people have mostly been wanting to see what's going on with them, so yeah... I knew I needed to make it good. Hopefully it's okay._

_But at least you get to find out what's actually happening with Alvin and Brittany now... so yay! ENJOY!_

* * *

Whenever they'd first gotten into the van to go camping, Alvin had known exactly how things were going to play out. He'd already decided it himself.

He was going to do his best to bother Brittany. What better way to get over a nasty breakup than to make sure that you were making the person who you'd recently broken up with miserable? And in a way, he didn't even have to feel bad about it. It wasn't like he was acting any _different_. Not really. He'd always picked on Brittany. He'd always liked to get her mad.

So why was it that after a few days of making sure he got on her nerves every chance he could, he was starting to feel a little guilty about it?

He wasn't doing anything wrong. In fact, he was doing it for himself! He was being totally _selfless_. That was the word for it, wasn't it? There wasn't anything bad about choosing to be the bigger person instead of letting a breakup get to you. Wasn't that what you were _supposed_ to do? Sure it was!

But after successfully getting her upset more than once (he knew he would, he'd never doubted himself), he'd realized something.

Usually getting Brittany mad was _fun_. That was why he had always liked doing it; it had even pretty much become a hobby for him, if you wanted to put it like that. But now, there was something off about it. Alvin wasn't sure what it was, but he didn't like it— and he especially didn't like feeling _bad_ about something that he didn't think he should have had to feel bad about in the first place.

He'd even done something that Simon told him on several occasions was a very dangerous thing for a person like him to do— he'd sat down and allowed himself to _think_.

He thought about how he wasn't really having that much fun on the camping trip after all, and then he thought about how he could possibly be feeling bad about being mean to Brittany because it kind of was wrong considering the circumstances. Just a little wrong, though.

After that he'd thought about how maybe he did miss Brittany a little and there was always the small possibility that they were both being a _little_ stupid and over dramatic about everything. Maybe.

And then before he'd been able to really get all of his thoughts together, Theodore had _rudely_ interrupted his thinking time to complain about his problems with Eleanor! As if other people didn't have any of their own problems to worry about! He'd been tempted to tell Theodore to try not to be so selfish about things, but since he was getting a sandwich out of giving Theodore advice he'd decided to just let it slide.

Of course, being the genius that he was, he'd given Theodore great advice. Such great advice that it had even made Alvin himself think about it.

_"If you want someone, you got to go for it, Theodore. Or else it'll be too late eventually!"_

That was true. It had to be true, he had been the one who had said it. And Alvin was obviously _never_ wrong about things, he knew that much!

Whenever he and Brittany had broken up, Alvin hadn't really thought much of it at first. They'd broken up so many times he'd actually lost count a long, long time ago. Sure, their last break up might have been harsher than usual and it might have felt more final than the others, but he'd never actually completely considered that maybe it would be the one break up that would end their relationship for good if he didn't do anything.

Then he'd thought more about things for a while once he'd gotten Theodore off of his case, and he'd come to the conclusion that he needed to follow his own advice. He needed to do something.

Convincing Brittany to talk to him hadn't been _too_ hard, but he wasn't surprised about that. He couldn't think of a single person that could resist his natural charm and charisma. He'd known that she'd end up giving in.

Which was why he found himself looking at an impatient Brittany.

"So," she said, raising an eyebrow at him. "What did you want to talk about?" Before he could say anything, she added, "And why did it have to be out _here_? In the middle of the woods? Really, Alvin? We seriously could have just stayed in the tent, you know."

"I already told you why!" Alvin insisted.

She crossed her arms, glaring over at him from the large rock she'd dusted off and sat down on. She'd flat out refused to sit on the ground. "Well it was a stupid reason so I was just seeing if you had come up with a better excuse by now."

He opened his mouth to say something, but she quickly continued, "I already told everyone that I didn't want the weather to mess up my hair today. That's why I was staying in the tent. So if it frizzes up, it's _your_ fault!" She fluffed her hair up before looking back over at him expectantly.

"Are you gonna let me talk now?" he asked.

Brittany pursed her lips. She sat still, as if contemplating his question, before nodding.

"Thanks," Alvin rolled his eyes.

After that, he wasn't really sure what to do. He hadn't exactly planned anything for this part. So he decided to just wing it.

"Look, I know I've kind of... been bugging you ever since we got here," Alvin started, "and I know things have been kind of weird between us lately. But that's just because we're _making_ things weird when they don't have to be."

Brittany narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you trying to sound like you know what you're talking about?"

"I don't know. Is it working?"

A small smile appeared on her face, but she quickly went back to glaring at him in a matter of seconds. "Things have been weird between us lately because of _you_." she said firmly.

"Huh?" Alvin was caught off guard by that.

"It's your fault!" Brittany repeated, her voice rising with each word.

"It's not _just_ my fault!" Alvin snapped. "That's your problem, you always want to blame everything on me. But it's your fault too!"

"Oh, please," Brittany rolled her icy blue eyes at him. "What did I do?"

Alvin shrugged. "What _didn't_ you do?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Believe it or not, Brittany, you're wrong sometimes too."

"I know that!" Brittany snapped. "I don't think I'm never wrong!"

Alvin raised his eyebrows at her. "Well, you're acting like it." he pointed out.

Brittany's face turned red. She fell silent, but she looked much angrier than she'd already been just moments before. She glared at him and whenever she opened her mouth to speak up again, he waited for her to start yelling at him, but to his surprise all she did was close her mouth and stay quiet. She stared at her hands, her face softening.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, blurting it out so quickly that it nearly sounded like one word instead of two.

Alvin stared at her in complete shock.

"_What?_"

"I'm sorry..." she repeated slowly, "sorry that you're such a huge jerk!"

She stood up, her hands falling to her hips. She was glaring at him again. "You think that us breaking up is my fault? How exactly is it my fault? We could have fixed things. I know we were fighting a lot more than usual, but we could have _fixed_ it. You're the one who started avoiding me like the plague or something!"

"Because all you did was start fights!" Alvin glared right back at her. "All. The. Time."

"Ha, and you said that I was the one who put the blame for everything on you! Isn't that what you're doing to me?" Brittany cocked an eyebrow at him.

Alvin sighed loudly, shaking his head. "I wanted to talk to you to say that I was _sorry_, but you won't even let me get to that because you're starting something else _again_. I know that it wasn't all your fault... but it wasn't all my fault either! That's all I'm saying!"

Brittany stared at him blankly. "_You're_ sorry?"

"No," he said quickly. "I mean... yeah. A little. I guess."

Her eyes narrowed. She went silent _again_, and usually Alvin would be thankful for someone like Brittany Miller being quiet, but right now it was just frustrating.

"I know we were fighting a lot," Alvin said to fill the silence, "and I know it was worse than it usually is. But I'm saying sorry for it. And I'm saying that I miss you. So why can't you just say the same thing without being a brat about it?"

Brittany didn't say anything for a long time. But whenever she did, all she said was, "I'm not being a brat about it." She actually didn't sound mad anymore, though. It looked like a smile was threatening to break out on her face again.

Alvin blinked. Then he felt himself slowly starting to smile, too.

"You totally are," Alvin said teasingly, stepping closer to her.

Brittany bit her lip. "Fine," she relented, shrugging. "I guess I'm sorry too. Why didn't you just say you were sorry in the first place?"

Alvin's eyes widened. "You wouldn't let me!"

"Why have you been acting like a huge jerk this entire trip?" she continued, ignoring him, but for some reason she still didn't sound like she was mad. "And anyway, did you think that _avoiding_ me would make things better or something? That's so stupid. I have half a mind to take my apology back, you know, because technically most of this is your fault, but I guess a _tiny_ bit of it is my fault too, so I'm not sure—"

She was interrupted by Alvin abruptly kissing her. And it wasn't long before she was kissing him back.

Kissing Brittany was nice— he hadn't been able to do it in a while, and it _was_ his favorite way to get her to stop talking whenever he wanted her to. He wasn't sure where kissing her would actually leave them, though, but he didn't really care about that at the moment.

As the kiss deepened, Alvin instinctively placed his hands on Brittany's hips and she was soon backed up against one of the many trees surrounding them; he was suddenly wishing he _hadn't_ decided to talk somewhere besides the tent.

Before anything else could happen, Brittany abruptly pulled away.

"Did you hear that?" she frowned.

"Hear what?" he asked, pressing his lips to hers again before she could actually answer.

But she only pulled away again. "That!" she hissed. "Listen!"

Alvin rolled his eyes and waited. At first, he didn't hear anything. But after a few seconds of waiting, he thought he did hear something, and then the voices started to get louder.

"Alvin! Brittany!"

Brittany gasped. "Is that Simon and Eleanor? What are they doing?"

Alvin quickly grabbed Brittany by the arm and yanked her behind one of the nearest bushes that he could find. She yelped, looking at him with a mixture of anger and confusion.

"Be quiet," he hissed.

"Why?" she demanded loudly, probably on purpose.

"Because! I didn't tell anyone where we were going."

She stared at him in surprise. "Why not?!"

"I just didn't think it was that important." he shrugged.

"Well nice job, idiot," she muttered dryly. "They're probably wondering where we are."

Alvin nodded. "Yeah, I know, so we can just hide here and then once we don't hear them anymore we can go back to the van and then when they give up on looking for us we can just tell them we were there the whole time!"

"That's a really stupid plan." Brittany said with a roll of her eyes. "Which is why I'm not surprised you're the one who came up with it."

He would have said something back to that, but someone else did before he could.

"You're right, Brittany," Simon said. "It _is_ a stupid plan."

They both gasped, jumping upright out of the bush, only to be met with the faces of two very annoyed siblings.

"What are you two doing out here?!" Eleanor demanded, her arms crossed.

"It would have taken you two seconds to tell someone where you were going!" Simon added.

Eleanor nodded in agreement. Then she said, "Now we've got to find the others."

"We split up since we knew that would be a more efficient way to find you both." Simon explained for her.

Brittany was silently fuming as Eleanor and Simon both continued to scold them like they were there parents or something, so Alvin decided to be the one to say something.

"It's not that big of a deal!" he insisted.

Simon crossed his arms. "Maybe not, but you still should have told someone so we wouldn't have had to go looking for you. We were worried. Any rational person would be."

"Whatever," Alvin rolled his eyes. "We were kind of in the middle of something, anyway! Do you have any idea how annoying it is to get interrupted like that?"

"As a matter of fact—" Simon started, his voice rising, before Eleanor stepped forward and ended the conversation for them.

"Can you two do this later?" she asked dryly. "I'm sure everyone else would like to be able to get back to the van before it gets really dark outside."

Simon sighed. He motioned for everyone else to follow him and turned to walk away. Over his shoulder, he called to Alvin, "By the way, that bush you two were in looks like poison ivy. You're lucky you weren't in it for a very long time and that I know a lot about poison ivy if I turn out to be right. Don't touch anyone else for right now, just to be safe."

Alvin's eyes widened. "What?"

"Oh my God," Brittany gasped in horror. She glared at Alvin. "This is all your fault!"

* * *

_Okay, so... I did my research on this (I hate writing something wrong in a story if I can help it) and apparently poison ivy bushes aren't in California. But I really didn't want to drop this idea, so I'm just going to bend the truth a little bit. I know it's not a big deal, at least I hope it's not to anyone else... but I didn't want anyone to think I was stupid._

_Please don't forget to review if you're reading this! I love knowing what you guys think._

_I'll try to update soon._


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Have you guys noticed the new names added to the character list for the archive? Those are there thanks to me. :)**

**I emailed fanfiction about how it was insane to have options for people that aren't even real characters ("OC" and "Charlene"...) and not have actual canon characters. I asked them if they'd add Miss Miller and Vinny since they're important characters, along with Alvin and Brittany's twin boys that appear in the episode "Big Dreams". **

**And they did! They're on the list now!**

**I've got to write another one-shot about the Alvittany twins soon, just to celebrate about them being added to the character list! I'm really happy they got added because I love the twins SO much, and now maybe more people will realize that Alvittany do have canon babies.**

**Oh well, just wanted to blab about that for a second. Enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

Her green eyes stayed put on the thin flower that she held between her index finger and thumb. She'd been rolling the flower back and forth in her hand, careful not to snap the delicate petals. But her mind was elsewhere.

With a soft sigh, Jeanette set the flower down. She was half-tempted to throw it on the ground and forget about it, but she couldn't find it in herself to do that. Why? She wasn't sure. She wasn't quite sure why she did _a lot_ of things, and now keeping some silly flower that meant nothing could be added to that list.

She knew that she was being stupid. She was allowing herself to get ahead of things. She was looking too far into what was really happening.

There was absolutely no way, without a doubt, that Simon's strange behavior could have possibly meant what she had dared to consider for even a brief moment.

Jeanette had already been through this time and time before with herself. Simon would do something to get her hopes up, she would stupidly _allow_ herself to get said hopes up, and then in the end she would become crushed and disappointed whenever nothing actually happened between the two of them.

For a split second though, she had let herself wonder if maybe this trip was proving that her thoughts weren't so far-fetched after all.

There was something that he had to tell her, which she still didn't know what it was. She guessed that if it was something that wasn't too big of a deal than he would have blurted it out to her already. What could possibly cause him to keep giving up each time something came up whenever he tried to tell her? Not to mention how awestruck she had been by their small moment that had ultimately been interrupted by Theodore whenever he fell into the river...

She shook her head, attempting to will those thoughts away. She couldn't possibly believe how selfish she could be at times! Here she was, moping about her problems, whenever there were people that were actually sick!

Theodore's sneezing hadn't stopped, and his nose had become stuffy. He'd even gotten a bad cough as well. Dave had suggested canceling the trip early and going home since he clearly had caught a cold— but Theodore had insisted he was fine and could manage the next remaining days they had left. Eventually Dave had reluctantly agreed, only after telling everyone that if he even caught word of Theodore getting a fever they'd be going straight home.

Not only that, but Alvin and Brittany were both stuck with poison ivy. That had taken a little bit more of convincing to not cancel the trip over, but Simon clearly knew what he was doing and was helping the two of them out as much as he could and had told Dave it wasn't anything extreme that he couldn't handle. He was doing a great job of taking care of Alvin and Brittany too, despite their _occasional_ complaining.

Jeanette chewed on her bottom lip. She couldn't even think of the others without thinking of Simon. Why was she doing this to herself?

Without letting herself think a second thought about it, she stood and made her way back over to the tent, leaving the flower behind on the ground.

She carefully climbed back into the tent, trying not to make too much noise since she knew it was early and as far as she knew she was the only one awake. But once she got back inside the tent she saw Eleanor fixing the blankets and pillows that she and her sisters slept on and Brittany frowning while she stared into a small compact mirror.

"Look at my face!" Brittany wailed, throwing the mirror to the floor of the tent. Luckily it didn't break. "I look terrible!"

"You look fine, you can't help what the poison ivy does." sighed Eleanor, as if she had had the same conversation a hundred times already— which Jeanette knew that she had. All last night and now apparently all morning, Brittany had complained about what the poison ivy had done to her face.

Brittany's icy blue eyes narrowed at Eleanor. "You might be used to waking up with a less than perfect face, but I'm _not!_ So have some sympathy!"

Sensing a fight coming on as she watched Eleanor angrily beat into one of the pillows instead of fluffing it up like she had been previously, Jeanette decided it was time for her to speak up.

"I-I think you look fine too, Brittany..."

Brittany sighed and pushed past Eleanor so that she could lay back down under the covers.

"Whatever," she yawned, "I'm going back to bed. It's too early to deal with all of this right now."

"You could have told me that before I started fixing the blankets!" Eleanor snapped.

Brittany pretended that she didn't hear her.

Meanwhile, Jeanette was busy staring at her hands, wishing that she could find a way to force Simon out of her thoughts. She couldn't stop thinking about him. Not even her sisters were helping put him out of her head.

She couldn't get over it. Simon had been acting strange for the entire trip. She wished that she could know why for sure, but until he finally decided to tell her, she couldn't decide what it really could be.

She'd racked her brain for options several times, and one of the only things she could think of was that maybe she wasn't delusional and that her feelings for him were mutual.

But that was silly. She couldn't let herself think like that, she'd only wind up getting further disappointed with no one to blame but herself.

Was she really looking too much into it? She knew that she was, but she still couldn't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe...

"Hey, you okay?"

Eleanor's voice brought her back to reality. She looked up with wide eyes. Jeanette had always had a problem of letting her face show too much whenever she got distracted.

"Um, yeah..." she muttered, hugging her knees to her chest. She frowned slightly. "Well, no, not really."

"I can tell. What's the matter?" Eleanor asked.

Jeanette bit her lip. She knew that if she tried to talk to someone about Simon that she'd only be making a fool out of herself. She also knew that if she could tell anyone, it should be Eleanor, since she trusted her little sister and knew that she'd be the last person to judge her. Which was why she decided to just get over it and say something.

"I'm just worried," Jeanette said, before quickly adding, "a-and confused."

Eleanor nodded slowly. "About what?" she prompted.

Jeanette proceeded to launch into a rushed and nervous explanation of exactly what she was talking about.

She told Eleanor all about how Simon had continuously told her that he needed to tell her something, only to end up insisting he'd tell her later each and every time. She told her about how she wished she knew what Simon wanted to talk to her about so badly but that she couldn't guess what it had to be.

She even told Eleanor, with her face as red as a tomato, how she had been crushing on Simon for a long time now and how she had hoped that maybe he wanted to talk to her about something to do with that. Then she begged Eleanor not to tell anyone about her confession.

"I won't, Jeanette," Eleanor assured her. "Besides, I already knew about that."

Jeanette blanched. "W-what?"

She felt her heartbeat begin to quicken. Her feelings for Simon weren't _that_ obvious, were they?

"I'm your sister, it's my job to know these kind of things." Eleanor grinned, as if she had read her mind.

Jeanette fidgeted in her spot nervously. "So... so what do you think, then? Am I being silly about all of this?"

"No," her sister shook her head. Then she continued, "It's not your fault that you're getting curious about it since he keeps bringing it up to you and then dropping it. Anyone would wonder what that's got to be about."

"But what about thinking that h-he might l-like me?" Jeanette asked, playing with her fingers to avoid having to look at Eleanor. "Don't you think that's pretty silly?"

"No. I'd be more surprised if you were _wrong_ about that than right." Eleanor replied.

Jeanette was tempted to ask her what she meant by that, but she decided against it. Instead she said, "So w-what should I do?"

Before Eleanor could say anything, Brittany sat up and jumped into the conversation.

"Did you ever think that maybe he has something bad to tell you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

The bespectacled Chipette stared at her in bewilderment. "W-what...?"

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" Eleanor demanded, glaring at her.

Ignoring her, Brittany continued, "Well, he keeps trying to talk to you and then deciding not to. Maybe he feels bad about whatever he has to tell you."

Jeanette felt her heart sink. How could she not have actually considered something like that? It made sense...

"I'd say what you need to do is just leave it alone and wait for him to be able to tell you himself. That way you can save yourself from the embarrassment if it _is_ something bad." Brittany advised her.

"Don't listen to her," Eleanor insisted firmly. "She's just miserable so now she wants to bring everyone down with her!"

Brittany's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah?" she said, before grabbing one of the nearby pillows and hitting Eleanor on the head with it.

Eleanor snatched the pillow up and hit her right back. "You are _really_ getting on my nerves this morning."

"Well the feeling is definitely mutual," Brittany growled.

"Like I said, don't listen to her," Eleanor focused her attention back on Jeanette. "You know what you should do?"

Jeanette shook her head slowly, desperate for an answer.

"You should listen to me, that's what you should do!" Brittany insisted.

Eleanor glared at Brittany. "No," she said. "You should try to talk to Simon and tell him that he owes you an explanation."

"R-really?" Jeanette's gaze fell to her hands again. "But Brittany's right... I p-probably _will_ embarrass myself."

"No you won't," Eleanor sighed. "And even if you do, so what? Better some temporary embarrassment than constantly getting yourself worried over this, right?"

She must have been able to sense that Jeanette was still unsure about what to do since she added, "He can't just keep telling you he's got something to say and then not say it. Tell him that's not fair to you and that you either want an answer or you don't want to hear about it anymore."

Jeanette wished that she could help her realize that things like that weren't so easy for her to do. Eleanor was great at speaking her mind, and Jeanette wished she could say the same thing about herself, but she didn't know how Eleanor did it. Jeanette just got too choked up and anxious about things, usually thinking them over too much and worrying herself to death.

She still wasn't sure what to do or who was right, but her sisters were staring at her expectantly, so she offered a feeble, "O-okay..." to show them that she would think about it.

"Just remember who clearly knows more about boys and what to do with them here," Brittany told her, itching at the red bumps on her arm while she spoke.

"Don't scratch!" Eleanor said sternly, slapping Brittany's hand away.

While her sisters began to argue back and forth again, Jeanette attempted to block them out so that she could get her thoughts in order.

She knew that Eleanor's advice would probably be the most ideal to listen to. She just couldn't help but think that Brittany _did_ have a point. Plus, even if she listened to Eleanor, how could she make herself just walk up to Simon and demand he tell her whatever he kept trying to say? That had to be much easier said than done, and yet Jeanette didn't even think it sounded easy in the first place.

Plus, she'd scolded herself several times for letting herself think that Simon might actually return her feelings, only to come at a dead end whenever she couldn't think of whatever else he could be trying to tell her... so maybe Brittany was right. Maybe he really did have something bad to tell her.

But what could it have been? She hadn't done anything wrong, had she?

There was only one way to find out. She'd just have to listen to both of her sisters, in a way.

If she wanted to find out what Simon had to tell her and whether it was bad or not, she would have to just outright ask him. Brittany wasn't the only one who sounded right, Eleanor did too! She did deserve to know what it was that he wanted to tell her! And she was going to find out what he had to tell her on her own since apparently she had to...

She just needed to work up the courage to be able to do that.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, this is definitely not my favorite chapter. **

**This was pretty much a filler chapter, if you couldn't tell, but it was necessary. So yeah.**

**Thanks for reading! PLEASE leave a review, I seriously love getting them and they help motivate me to write faster!**


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